Publications by authors named "Heidi H Wong"

Article Synopsis
  • Trauma is a big cause of injuries and deaths in kids, and this study looked at how COVID-19 affected these injuries in Hong Kong.
  • Researchers found that even though fewer kids came in for serious injuries during COVID-19, more kids had injuries at home, like burns.
  • They concluded that the overall number of injuries didn’t change much, but it was important to focus on preventing injuries at home, especially burns.
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Article Synopsis
  • Joint injuries increase the risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA), and recent research shows that the fibrinolytic pathway plays a significant, yet unclear, role in OA progression.
  • In a mouse model, inhibiting plasmin reduced OA progression, while enhancing overall plasmin activity worsened it, indicating a complex relationship between fibrinolysis and OA development.
  • The study found that components of the fibrinolytic pathway, particularly uPA and uPAR, promote inflammation and cartilage degradation through various cellular signaling pathways, suggesting that targeting this pathway could be a potential treatment strategy for OA.
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Objective: Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are highly specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and have long been regarded as pathogenic. Despite substantial in vitro evidence supporting this claim, reports investigating the proinflammatory effects of ACPAs in animal models of arthritis are rare and include mixed results. Here, we sequenced the plasmablast antibody repertoire of a patient with RA and functionally characterized the encoded ACPAs.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers employed various techniques like flow cytometry, RNA-Seq, and qPCR to analyze OA synovial tissues, identifying specific mast cell markers and categorizing OA patients into three pathotypes based on mast cell presence.
  • * Treatment with cetirizine, an antagonist of the histamine receptor, showed promise in reducing OA severity and associated mediators, suggesting that targeting mast cell activity may improve disease outcomes.
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Background: IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a fibroinflammatory condition involving loss of B-cell tolerance and production of autoantibodies. However, the relevant targets and role of these aberrant humoral immune responses are not defined.

Objective: Our aim was to identify novel autoantibodies and autoantigen targets that promote pathogenic responses in IgG4-RD.

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Unlabelled: Osteoarthritis is characterized by articular cartilage breakdown, and emerging evidence suggests that dysregulated innate immunity is likely involved. Here, we performed proteomic, transcriptomic, and electron microscopic analyses to demonstrate that mast cells are aberrantly activated in human and murine osteoarthritic joint tissues. Using genetic models of mast cell deficiency, we demonstrate that lack of mast cells attenuates osteoarthritis in mice.

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Purpose: The mortality rate in patients with haemodynamically unstable pelvic fractures is as high as 40-60%. Despite the new advances in trauma care which are in phase in trauma centres in Hong Kong, the management of haemodynamically unstable pelvic fracture is still heterogeneous. The aim of this study is to review the results of management of haemodynamically unstable pelvic fracture patients in Hong Kong over a five year period.

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Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is a devastating pulmonary vascular disease in which autoimmune and inflammatory phenomena are implicated. B cells and autoantibodies have been associated with IPAH and identified as potential therapeutic targets. However, the specific populations of B cells involved and their roles in disease pathogenesis are not clearly defined.

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Introduction: The management of traumatic brain injuries in the elderly (age ≥ 65 years) is a constant dilemma. The aim of this study is to investigate for factors that may predict outcome of operative treatment in this group of patients.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 68 elderly patients who had been operated in a designated center from 2006 to 2010.

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Objectives: While various monocyte chemokine systems are increased in expression in osteoarthritis (OA), the hierarchy of chemokines and chemokine receptors in mediating monocyte/macrophage recruitment to the OA joint remains poorly defined. Here, we investigated the relative contributions of the CCL2/CCR2 versus CCL5/CCR5 chemokine axes in OA pathogenesis.

Methods: -, -, - and -deficient and control mice were subjected to destabilisation of medial meniscus surgery to induce OA.

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Objective: Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, their presence years before the onset of clinical RA is perplexing. Although multiple putative citrullinated antigens have been identified, no studies have demonstrated the specific capacity of these antigens to initiate inflammatory arthritis.

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Osteoarthritis, characterized by the breakdown of articular cartilage in synovial joints, has long been viewed as the result of 'wear and tear'. Although low-grade inflammation is detected in osteoarthritis, its role is unclear. Here we identify a central role for the inflammatory complement system in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis.

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