A case of germinal center formation by CD45RO T and CD20 B lymphocytes in rheumatoid arthritic subchondral bone: proposal for a two-compartment model of immune-mediated disease with implications for immunotherapeutic strategies.

In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity occurring as joint destruction of cartilage and bone is thought to be driven by inflammatory reactions which are initiated by exogenous microbial mechanisms and perpetuated by endogenous autoimmune mechanisms. According to the synovial model of RA, these reactions originate in the adjacent synovial tissues. The following set of observations is presented herein to suggest an alternate model involving subchondral bone.

Effect of fetal thyroid hormone (RT3) on sarcoma cells in culture.

Fetal thyroid hormone (RT3) is considered metabolically inactive and is present in high concentration in fetuses and in some patients with end-stage malignant disease. In a virus-induced erythroleukemia cell model, RT3 was found to stimulate the growth of the erythroleukemia cells in culture. The focus of this research was to test the effect of RT3, at several concentrations, on the growth of naturally occurring human sarcomas in cell culture.

Aspiration biopsy of primary neoplasms of bone.

Aspiration biopsy of bone is a simple and relatively safe diagnostic tool that had a diagnostic accuracy of 72 per cent in thirty-one patients who had a primary bone tumor that was suspected of being malignant and of 83 per cent in twelve patients who had a suspected giant-cell tumor. However, twenty-six primary lesions of bone that were thought likely to be benign were not as easily and definitively diagnosed (an accuracy rate of 23 per cent), and for these lesions, multiple needle-aspiration samples or open biopsy provides greater diagnostic accuracy.