Spontaneous cytokine gene expression by cultured skin fibroblasts of systemic sclerosis. Correlation with collagen synthesis.

Objective: To investigate the spontaneous cytokine gene expression in fibroblasts from patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis. Their pattern of expression was correlated with the production of collagen.

Methods: Fibroblasts were obtained from skin biopsies of nine patients diagnosed with systemic sclerosis (mean 16 +/- 8.

Contamination with Mycoplasma spp. induces interleukin-13 expression by human skin fibroblasts in culture.

The mycoplasmas comprise a discrete group of microorganisms that are known to exert a range of effects upon cells derived from the immune system. Some of these interactions turn out to be immunomodulatory, such as polyclonal stimulation of T and B cells or enhancement of the cytolytic potential of macrophages, NK cells and T lymphocytes. Immunologically committed cells, when infected with mycoplasmas, can also increase the production of cytokines (IL-1, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-6), interferon (IFN) gamma, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and colony-stimulating factors (particularly GM-CSF).

Cellular immunity to cartilage proteoglycans: relevance to the pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis.

Cellular immunity to cartilage proteoglycans may be responsible for sustaining chronic inflammation in ankylosing spondylitis. This hypothesis was examined by measuring peripheral blood and synovial fluid mononuclear cell proliferation in five preparations of human cartilage proteoglycan monomer in vitro. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 25 patients and synovial fluid mononuclear cells from five patients were compared with those from normal and disease control subjects matched for age.

Proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients to mycobacterial antigens.

Proliferation of rheumatoid and control peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to an antigenic acetone-precipitable extract from mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTa) was investigated. Cells were also stimulated with the recall antigen tuberculin PPD (purified protein derivative) and the mitogen OKT3. Controls had a significantly higher response to both MTa and tuberculin PPD than RA patients.

Synovial T lymphocyte-specific immune response to Chlamydia trachomatis in Reiter's disease.

We studied the lymphocyte proliferative response to Chlamydia trachomatis in Reiter's syndrome (RS) compared with that in other rheumatic diseases. RS patients showed significantly increased C trachomatis-specific synovial fluid (SF) T cell proliferation. Proliferating cells were found in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets.

[Heat-shock proteins. Their clinical importance].

Heat-shock proteins (HSP) represents a protein superfamily comprising distinct molecular weights which are synthesized under conditions of cellular stress. The HSP constitute a phylogenetically-conserved response of cell preservation. Their functions are related to mechanisms such as thermotolerance and transport and scavenging of intracellular peptides.

HLA-DR4 restricted lymphocyte proliferation to a Mycobacterium tuberculosis extract in rheumatoid arthritis and healthy subjects.

The ability of an antigenic extract of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to induce proliferation of PMBC from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and normal controls was examined. The subjects were further classified as bearing or not bearing the HLA-DR4 phenotype, since this specificity is regarded as a genetic determinant commonly associated with RA. The mycobacterial extract induced significantly higher proliferative responses in lymphocytes from all HLA-DR4 positive as compared to HLA-DR4 negative subjects regardless of whether they had RA or not.