Rheumatoid Arthritis: Cuoghi I

Alivernini S, Fedele AL, Cuoghi I, Tolusso B, Ferraccioli G. · Cattedra e Clinica di Reumatologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Moscati 31, Rome, Italy. · Reumatismo. · Pubmed #18651051 links to  free full text

Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovial inflammation and pannus formation leading to destruction of cartilage and bone. Several self proteins have been suggested to be disease-driving autoantigens. Proteins are encoded by a limited number of genes in our genome. Post-translational modifications such as citrullination of the arginine residues, can increase the morphological and the functional diversity of the proteome. The positivity of anti-citrullinated peptides autoantibodies occurs then at an early stage of the disease development. Several factors, among which the synovial tissue inflammatory and the nitric oxide reaction, are involved in the regulation of the citrullination reaction. All of them have to be analysed and considered to understand the loss of tolerance and the development of autoimmunity leading to the disease.

Tolusso B, De Santis M, Bosello S, Gremese E, Gobessi S, Cuoghi I, Totaro MC, Bigotti G, Rumi C, Efremov DG, Ferraccioli G. · Division of Rheumatology, School of Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. · Clin Immunol. · Pubmed #19136305 No free full text.

Abstract: B cells have acquired an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) since B cell depletion allowed to rescue patients poorly responders to TNFalpha blockers. This study focused on the involvement of ZAP-70 as a bio-marker of B cells immune activation in RA. ZAP-70 expression in synovial fluid (SF) B cells obtained from RA patients was increased compared to SF B cells of osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Moreover we found that ZAP-70 positive/CD38 positive and ZAP-70 positive/CD5 positive B cells were enriched in SF. The analysis of B cell apoptosis in vitro showed that the percentage of ZAP-70 negative B cells spontaneously undergoing apoptosis was significantly higher than ZAP-70 positive B cells. The ZAP-70 positive B cell ratio (SF/peripheral blood (PB)) showed a positive correlation with SF autoantibody levels and with local levels of BAFF and IL6. ZAP-70 positive B cells seem to define a subset characterized by increased survival and high relationship with local inflammation and autoimmunity.