Serum N-propeptide of collagen IIA (PIIANP) as a marker of radiographic osteoarthritis burden.

Objective: Cartilage homeostasis relies on a balance of catabolism and anabolism of cartilage matrix. Our goal was to evaluate the burden of radiographic osteoarthritis and serum levels of type IIA procollagen amino terminal propeptide (sPIIANP), a biomarker representing type II collagen synthesis, in osteoarthritis.

Methods: OA burden was quantified on the basis of radiographic features as total joint faces with an osteophyte, joint space narrowing, or in the spine, disc space narrowing.

Tailored donor-acceptor polymers with an A-D1-A-D2 structure: controlling intermolecular interactions to enable enhanced polymer photovoltaic devices.

Extensive efforts have been made to develop novel conjugated polymers that give improved performance in organic photovoltaic devices. The use of polymers based on alternating electron-donating and electron-accepting units not only allows the frontier molecular orbitals to be tuned to maximize the open-circuit voltage of the devices but also controls the optical band gap to increase the number of photons absorbed and thus modifies the other critical device parameter-the short circuit current. In fact, varying the nonchromophoric components of a polymer is often secondary to the efforts to adjust the intermolecular aggregates and improve the charge-carrier mobility.

Rheumatoid arthritis-associated polymorphisms at 6q23 are associated with radiological damage in autoantibody-positive RA.

Objective: Recent studies have identified 6q23 as an important susceptibility locus for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with risk alleles at 3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms combining to give an effect size greater than that of these markers individually. We investigated whether these polymorphisms are also associated with disease severity measured by radiological damage.

Methods: We studied 927 patients from a cross-sectional RA cohort.

Tunable light emission using quantum dot-coated upconverters.

Near infrared (NIR) upconverters only emit at a single visible wavelength; coating them with quantum dot multilayers allows the emission wavelength to be tuned across the visible spectrum.

Haemopoietic stem cell transplantation--an evolving treatment for severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in rheumatology, neurology and gastroenterology.

The concept of haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to treat severe autoimmune diseases has been around for several decades. Advances in the safety of HSCT have made it a clinical reality since 1995. Databases have registered around a thousand patients treated specifically for a wide range of diseases, predominantly multiple sclerosis (MS), systemic sclerosis (SSc), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).