Diabetic patients with PDR and ERMs had the highest plasma and vitreous IR-ET-1 levels. ET-1 and its ETA and ETB receptors were present in ERMs. These data suggest that ET-1 is involved in diabetic vitreoretinal disease.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is largely considered to be a non-inflammatory disease, although there is compelling evidence that subclinical inflammation is a common event, even in the absence of acute inflammatory flares. In this study we analyze, by means of CD5 and CD69 expression, the infiltration and early activation of CD5+cells, mostly lymphocytes, in both synovial membrane and synovial fluid from advanced OA patients and compare them with samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls. The number of infiltrating CD5+ cells in both synovial membrane and synovial fluid from patients with advanced OA was significantly reduced as compared with rheumatoid arthritis patients. However, synovial membrane and synovial fluid CD5+ cells on OA exhibited a phenotype with evidence of recent activation comparable to that observed in RA.
This first approach to the viral prevalence in MSCs of bone marrow in OA patients and healthy controls seems to show a very low risk of viral transmission or reactivation in a possible MSCs' transplantation.
In this study, we have described the differential proteome of BM-MSCs from OA patients together with an increased chemotactic response of these cells in the context of OA. These results could indicate an activation of OA BM-MSCs in response to chemotactic signals sent by the altered subchondral bone in an attempt to heal damaged tissue.
Many viruses can evolve different strategies to exploit the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) for their own benefit. Some data have recently established connections between UPP and osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study was to determine the possible involvement of viral infections linked with the UPP in the physiopathology of OA. Samples of human cartilage were obtained from 12 patients with clinical and radiological features of OA and from 12 normal controls. DNA was extracted from cultured chondrocytes from these patients, and quantitative real-time PCR was performed to analyse the DNA/RNA prevalence and viral loads of HSV, EBV, HCMV, enterovirus, and HTLV-1. The prevalence of total viral DNA/RNA among patients with OA was 16.7% (mean viral load of 7.86 copies/mug DNA), EBV being responsible for the two positive samples, while the prevalence in controls was 0%. We did not detect any positive samples for HSV, CMV, enterovirus, and HTLV-1 among patients with OA and controls. This first approach to the study of the prevalence of viruses linked to the UPP in articular cartilage of end-stage OA patients provides evidences supporting the risk of EBV transmission or reactivation in a subset of patients with disorders requiring tissue regeneration.
Cartilage damage is a major problem in osteoarthritis (OA). To gain insight into the pathogenesis of OA, we have analyzed the differential proteome of articular chondrocytes from these patients. Protein extracts were prepared from cultured chondrocytes from 6 patients with end-stage OA and 6 normal donors and were analyzed by 2D-DIGE. Differentially expressed proteins were identified by mass spectrometry (MS). Significant differential expression was observed for 27 proteins, with 14 underexpressed and 13 overexpressed chondrocyte OA proteins. Of special interest was the identification of destrin, cofilins, gelsolin, annexin A2, glycolytic enzymes, chaperones, cathepsin D, proteasome beta 9 subunit isoform 2 proprotein and proteasome activator hPA28 subunit beta. The altered expression of these proteins is consistent with events such as cytoskeleton binding, protein disruption, apoptosis, and glycolysis, demonstrating the ability of the 2D-DIGE/MS platform to identify proteins with altered expression in chondrocytes from patients with end-stage OA. The identification of these proteins may open new lines of research for this disease.
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