The MHC2TA -168A>G gene polymorphism is not associated with rheumatoid arthritis in Austrian patients

An association between susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and a common -168A>G polymorphism in the MHC2TA gene with differential major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II molecule expression was recently reported in a Swedish population. The objective of the present study was to replicate this finding by examining the -168A>G polymorphism in an Austrian case–control study. Three hundred and sixty-two unrelated RA cases and 351 sex-matched and age-matched controls as well as 1,709 Austrian healthy individuals were genotyped. All participants were from the same ethnic background. Genotyping was performed using 5' allelic discrimination assays. The association between susceptibility to RA and the -168A>G single nucleotide polymorphism was examined by chi-square test. Comparison was made assuming a dominant effect (AG + GG genotypes versus AA genotype). In contrast to the primary report, the frequency of MHC2TA -168G allele carriers was not significantly different between patients and controls in the Austrian cohort. The homozygous MHC2TA -168 GG genotype was more frequent in matched controls than in Austrian RA patients. There was no association between the presence of RA-specific autoantibodies and the MHC2TA -168 GG genotype. In this cohort of Austrian patients, no association between the MHC2TA polymorphism and RA was found

Development of low blood glucose readings in nine non-diabetic patients treated with tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors: a case series

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Treatment with various biological agents in disease states such as rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with multiple side effects. Whereas many of these are frequently reported in the literature, hypoglycemia, a possible side effect of tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors, may be underpublicized.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report nine cases of non-diabetic Caucasian women who were between 29 and 68 years of age and who developed low glucose readings after treatment with tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors. We provide a more detailed discussion of existing evidence of the role of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the pathogenesis of inflammation and its impact on glycemic equilibrium.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Physicians using tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors in the treatment of various rheumatic and other autoimmune diseases should be aware of the potential for the development of glycemic disturbance in these patients. A further role of tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors in the glycemic equilibrium warrants larger controlled trials in patients with and those without a history of diabetes.</p

Lack of association of the CIITA -168A→G promoter SNP with myasthenia gravis and its role in autoimmunity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major histocompatibility complex class II transactivator (CIITA) regulates MHC class II gene expression. A promoter SNP -168A→G (rs3087456) has previously been shown to be associated with susceptibility to several immune mediated disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS) and myocardial infarction (MI). Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder which has previously been shown to be associated with polymorphisms of several autoimmune predisposing genes, including <it>IL-1</it>, <it>PTPN22</it>, <it>TNF-α </it>and the <it>MHC</it>. In order to determine if allelic variants of rs3087456 increase predisposition to MG, we analyzed this SNP in our Swedish cohort of 446 MG patients and 1866 controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No significant association of the SNP with MG was detected, neither in the patient group as a whole, nor in any clinical subgroup. The vast majority of previous replication studies have also not found an association of the SNP with autoimmune disorders.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We thus conclude that previous findings with regard to the role of the <it>CIITA </it>-168A→G SNP in autoimmunity may have to be reconsidered.</p

Antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide don’t decrease after 6 months of infliximab treatment in refractory rheumatoid arthritis

Anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) and the rheumatoid factor (RF) are well-established serological markers for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). ACPA are very useful in the diagnosis of RA, especially at the early stages of the disease when ACPA have a greater diagnostic value than RF. The aim of the study was to assess the influence of infliximab treatment on RF IgM and ACPA serum levels and RA activity during 6 months of treatment. Thirty-two patients with refractory RA were treated with infliximab during a 6-month period. At baseline, 3 and 6 months of treatment the patients were examined for the number swollen and tender joints out of 28 (SJC, TJC) and the visual analogue scale of arthritis activity according to the patient (VAS). Serum samples were tested for erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein level (CRP), ACPA and RF IgM. The disease activity score (DAS-28) parameter was also calculated at the same time. During the course of our study, we observed statistically significant improvement in ESR, CRP, TJC, SJC, VAS DAS-28, and RF IgM after 3 and 6 months of infliximab treatment when compared to the baseline, whereas the ACPA level remained unchanged after 3 and 6 months of treatment (P = 0.96 and P = 0.85). The changes in the ACPA level are not a factor for evaluation of successful infliximab treatment but the changes in RF IgM are. According to different behavior of these antibodies during infliximab treatment, we suggest that the roles of ACPA and RF in the pathogenesis of RA are different

Effects of Animal Manures and Chemical Fertilizer on Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Milk Thistle Plant (Silybum marianum)

Abstract\ud Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) is one of the medicinal plants that has many drug properties. In order to evaluate effects of animal manures and chemical fertilizer on yield and yield components of Milk Thistle plant, an experiment was conducted in the Research Farm of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in year 2008 based on completely randomized block design with three replications and four treatments. The treatments included: control (without any manure or fertilizer), chemical NPK fertilizer, cattle and sheep manures. The characteristics such as number of lateral stem per plant, height of plant, number of inflorescences per plant, inflorescence diameter, number of seeds per capitol, 1000 seed weight, seed yield, biological yield, harvest index, oil percentage, silymarin percentage (active ingredient), silybin percentage, oil yield and silymarin yield were recorded. The results showed that different treatments had no effect on yield components, but had significant effect on oil percentage, silymarin and silybin content of seeds. Cattle manure had more oil (21%) and silybin (21.7%) compared with other treatments. There was no significant difference in oil and silymarin percentage between control and chemical fertilizer treatments. Cattle manure and sheep manure had minimum percentage of silybin (16.4) and maximum percentage of silymarin (3.1) Compared with other treatments. There were positive correlation between height of plant with seed yield (r=0.86**) and inflorescence diameter (r=0.6*), which represents importance of these traits for final yield assessment. There were no positive correlation between seed yield and other yields components.\ud \ud Keywords: Milk Thistle, Quantitative and qualitative characteristics, Animal manures, Medicinal plant

Effects of Salinity and Drought Stresses on Germination Characteristics of Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum)

Abstract In order to study the germination and seedling growth responses of Milk Thistle as a medicinal plant to salinity and drought stresses, two separate experiments were conducted based on completely randomised design with four replications. In the first experiment, the effect of drought potential levels (0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -7, -10, -15 and -20 bars) due to using polyethilenglycol (PEG) 6000 and the second trial evaluated effects of salinity potential (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 ml/molar) caused by NaCl were studied on germination characteristics and seedling growth. The results indicated that salinity and drought stresses showed significant effects on germination and seedling growth of milk thistle. The seeds were able to germinate in 300 ml/molar salinity potential and -20 bar drought potential conditions. The effect of both stresses on length and dry weight of seedlings were significant and with increasing salinity and drought stresses, the length and dry weight of radicles and plumules decreased. Increasing drought level, led to higher plumule length reduction compared to radicle length reduction, which shows that milk thistle plumule is more sensitive to droughtness than radicle. Dry weight of seedling at -3 bar drought potential was 50% of control plants. Keywords: PEG, Drought stress, Sodium chloride, Milk thistl