Monthly minodronate treatment increased BMDs in newly treated patients over 27 months. Serum Pen increased with M-MIN therapy, possibly indicating prolonged bone turnover. The initial 9-month changes in serum P1NP predicted the 27-month changes in hip BMDs when M-MIN replaced alendronate or risedronate.
Introduction: Some reports showed that low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) could stimulate mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) differentiation into osteo/chondrocyte in vitro. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether LIPUS treatment combined with cell therapy could affect cartilage regeneration in rats which have poor intrinsic repair capacity.Materials and Methods: Eight weeks old male Wistar rats were used in this study. An osteochondral defect, 1mm in diameter, was created on both sides of femora trochlea. MSCs were injected into right knee joint after 4 weeks from defect operation and rats were divided into 2 interventions: without or with LIPUS treatment. Two days after intra-articular injection, the rats with LIPUS were subjected to LIPUS treatment according to parameters borrowed from those for bone fracture treatment, 20 min/d, 5 d/wk for 4 weeks, to both knee joints. The rats were euthanized and their knee joints were isolated after 4 weeks post intra-articular injection. The isolated knee joints were therefore divided into 4 groups: Control group, LIPUS group, MSC group and LIPUS+MSC (MSCL) group. The osteochondral defect area was histologically evaluated with Wakitani cartilage repair score and immunohistochemically stained for type II collagen.Results: Four weeks after intra-articular injection, the defect area was filled with repair tissue which wasn't hyaline cartilage in Control group. In LIPUS, MSC and MSCL groups, the Wakitani cartilage repair score was increased compared with Control group, although there were not clear differences among these 3 groups in the score. In LIPUS and MSCL groups, we observed type II collagen expression in wide range of repair tissue compared with MSC group.Discussion: Our results indicated that LIPUS treatment or MSC injection could stimulate cartilage regeneration, while there might be little interactive effect between these 2 treatments in vitro.
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and drug retention rate of golimumab (GLM) for long-term use in daily practice for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods Patients with RA who started GLM therapy with a minimum follow-up period of 52 weeks were included. The patients were divided into a biologic-naïve group and switch group. The disease activity score (DAS) 28-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (DAS28-ESR), grip power, and Japanese version of the health assessment questionnaire (J-HAQ) score were assessed. In addition, the treatment continuation rate was evaluated at the final follow-up. Patients Sixty-five patients (58 women and 7 men; median [range] age, 69 [61-74] years; median [range] disease duration, 9 [5-16] years) were included. Twenty-eight patients were biologic-naïve (naïve group), and 37 were switched to biologics (switch group). Results The median (range) follow-up period was 134 (58-162) weeks. The DAS28-ESR improved from a median (range) of 4.31 (3.52-5.25) to 2.65 (2.28-3.77) in the naïve group and from 4.27 (3.19-4.89) to 2.89 (2.49-3.88) in the switch group. The grip power improved in both groups (p<0.01); however, the J-HAQ score showed no marked improvement in either group. The continuation rates were 22/28 (78.6%) in the naïve group, and 26/37 (70.3%) in the switch group at the final follow-up. Conclusion We herein report for the first time that the long-term use of GLM improves the grip power. Improving the grip power may help prevent sarcopenia and frailty in the future. Given the efficacy and high continuation rate, we suggest that GLM would be a well-tolerated treatment option for RA.
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