Active rheumatoid arthritis originates from few joints but subsequently affects the majority of
joints. Thus far, the pathways of the progression of the disease are largely unknown. As …

Objectives Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare disease requiring multicentre collaboration to
reveal comprehensive details of disease-related causes for morbidity and mortality. Methods …

Fibroblast activation protein (FAP), as described so far, is a type II cell surface serine protease
expressed by fibroblastic cells in areas of active tissue remodelling such as tumour stroma …

Primary chondrocytes dedifferentiate in serial monolayer with respect to their morphological
and biosynthetic phenotype. They change from a round to a flattened fibroblast-like shape, …

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate disease-specific molecular changes in osteoarthritis (OA) by
analyzing the differential gene expression profile of damaged vs intact cartilage areas within the …

Pseudoachondroplasia is a dominantly inherited chondrodysplasia associated with mutations
in cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP). Investigations into the pathogenesis of …

BACKGROUND: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue diseases characterised by
excessive thickening of the dermis in addition to affection of internal organs. Many patients …

Different gene transfer approaches to achieve long-term transgene expression in cultured
primary bovine chondrocytes were compared using enhanced green fluorescent protein (…

OBJECTIVES: Myocardial manifestations of systemic sclerosis are mainly due to fibrotic
remodeling. We report on two cases, where an endocardial and myocardial inflammation may …

Optoacoustic molecular imaging can provide spatially resolved information about the
presence of molecular markers in vivo. We synthesized elongated gold nanorods having an …