Acceptance of Illness and Health Behaviours of Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease Treated with Haemodialysis: A Single-Centre Study.

Background: Patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing haemodialysis experience numerous life changes often requiring significant sacrifices. Adaptation to the limitations associated with the disease and dialysis treatments may influence their health behaviour.

Aim: The aim of the study was to analyse the relationship between the level of illness acceptance and the intensity of health behaviours in patients treated with haemodialysis.

Inhibitor of DNA binding/differentiation 2 induced by hypoxia promotes synovial fibroblast-dependent osteoclastogenesis.

Objective: To map hypoxic areas in arthritic synovium and to establish the relevance of low oxygen levels to the phenotype of synovial fibroblasts, with special focus on bone degradation.

Methods: To analyze the distribution of hypoxia in arthritic joints, the hypoxia marker EF5 was administered to mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). To evaluate the effect of hypoxia on rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (RASFs), reverse suppression subtractive hybridization and complementary DNA array were used.

Functional TLR9 modulates bone marrow B cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients.

TLR9 recognizes unmethylated CpG-rich, pathogen-derived DNA sequences and represents the component of the innate immune system that heavily influences adaptive immunity and may contribute to the immunological disturbances in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Accumulating data indicate that BM of RA patients participates in the pathogenesis of this disease as a site of proinflammatory cytokines overproduction and lymphocytes activation. Here, we investigated the functionality of TLR9 and its role in the modulation of RA BM B-cell functions.

Cytotoxicity of taurine metabolites depends on the cell type.

We report that the effect of Tau-Cl on the cell fate strongly depends on the cellular context. In leukemic Jurkat cells Tau-Cl (> 200 microM) triggers mitochondrial, p53-independent apoptosis and amplifies PCD induced by anti-Fas treatment. In contrast, Tau-Cl affects RA FLS in a dose-dependent manner.

Selective inhibition of cyclooxygenase 2-generated prostaglandin E2 synthesis in rheumatoid arthritis synoviocytes by taurine chloramine.

Objective: To investigate the effects of taurine chloramine (Tau-Cl), a chlorinated derivative of the amino acid taurine, on the expression of cyclooxygenase (COX) isoenzymes and prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) synthesis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS).

Methods: FLS, isolated from the synovial tissue of RA patients, were treated in vitro with either interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta; 1 ng/ml) alone or together with 200-500 microM Tau-Cl. The expression of COX isoenzymes was evaluated at both the protein (Western blotting) and the messenger RNA (mRNA) (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) levels.

Fibroblast-like synoviocytes from rheumatoid arthritis patients express functional IL-15 receptor complex: endogenous IL-15 in autocrine fashion enhances cell proliferation and expression of Bcl-x(L) and Bcl-2.

The hallmarks of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are leukocytic infiltration of the synovium and expansiveness of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). The abnormal proliferation of FLS and their resistance to apoptosis is mediated, at least in part, by present in RA joints proinflammatory cytokines and growth factors. Because IL-15 exerts properties of antiapoptotic and growth factors, and is produced by RA FLS, we hypothesized that IL-15 participates in RA FLS activation.