Change in CD3 positive T-cell expression in psoriatic arthritis synovium correlates with change in DAS28 and magnetic resonance imaging synovitis scores following initiation of biologic therapy--a single centre, open-label study.

Introduction: With the development of increasing numbers of potential therapeutic agents in inflammatory disease comes the need for effective biomarkers to help screen for drug efficacy and optimal dosing regimens early in the clinical trial process. This need has been recognized by the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) group, which has established guidelines for biomarker validation. To seek a candidate synovial biomarker of treatment response in psoriatic arthritis (PsA), we determined whether changes in immunohistochemical markers of synovial inflammation correlate with changes in disease activity scores assessing 28 joints (ΔDAS28) or magnetic resonance imaging synovitis scores (ΔMRI) in patients with PsA treated with a biologic agent.

Synovial tissue sublining CD68 expression is a biomarker of therapeutic response in rheumatoid arthritis clinical trials: consistency across centers.

Objective: To determine whether the correlation between the mean change in disease activity and the mean change in synovial sublining (sl) CD68 expression could be demonstrated across different academic centers.

Methods: Synovial biopsies obtained at arthroscopy from patients with rheumatoid arthritis before and 160 days after rituximab therapy were selected and coded. Paired sections were processed independently at Amsterdam Medical Center (AMC) and at St.

Reliability of computerized image analysis for the evaluation of serial synovial biopsies in randomized controlled trials in rheumatoid arthritis.

Analysis of biomarkers in synovial tissue is increasingly used in the evaluation of new targeted therapies for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study determined the intrarater and inter-rater reliability of digital image analysis (DIA) of synovial biopsies from RA patients participating in clinical trials. Arthroscopic synovial biopsies were obtained before and after treatment from 19 RA patients participating in a randomized controlled trial with prednisolone.

Random or selective neuroanatomical connectivity. Study of the distribution of fibers over two populations of identified interneurons in cerebral cortex.

We present a neuroanatomical tracing method in a stereological approach to study the proportional distribution of fibers of a particular projection over two chemically different populations of neurons. The fiber projection from the presubiculum to the medial division of the entorhinal cortex of the rat serves as a model projection. Potential target interneurons express calcium binding proteins, either parvalbumin or calretinin.

Tracing tools to resolve neural circuits.

In this paper we summarize neuroanatomical tracing methods, in particular combinations of methods designed to achieve the combined goals of tracing connectivity and extracting extra information from the projection or the target neurons. These combinations include techniques that identify projection fibres together with the neurons from which they originate, methods which establish the morphological or chemical identity of the target neurons and techniques to verify the presence of contacts between the terminal boutons on fibres and prospective target neurons. In the second part of this paper we describe a method recently developed in our laboratory, which consists of fluorescence tracing (introducing marker #1) combined with immunofluorescence with different fluorochromes (markers #2 and #3).