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To be able to visualize real time leukocyte — endothelial cell interactions in vitro opens up the possibility of exploring the complex cascade of events that culminate in leukocyte recruitment and diapedesis in a much more detailed and controlled way. Techniques have been developed where ...

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from existing vessels. The formation of new vessels appears to be an early and fundamental process for the evolution of the inflammatory response in synovial joints affected by arthritis. The propagation of new vessels in the synovial membr ...

The study of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) has yielded important insights into the pathogenic mechanisms of rheumatoid arthritis. FLS can be cultured from synovial tissue obtained at joint replacement surgery, synovectomy, or synovial biopsy. After collagenase digesti ...

The ingress of leukocytes into the synovium is a key event in inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis. A number of soluble inflammatory mediators, such as chemokines, cytokines, and soluble adhesion molecules are involved in this event. It is feasible to test the chemotactic ac ...

Evaluation of differentially regulated genes is essential for the development of novel therapeutic approaches in multifactorial diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA synovial fibroblasts (RASF) are key players in inflammation and cartilage destruction. Therefor ...

The use of gene transfer techniques has become of utmost importance both for the analysis of molecular pathways of rheumatic joint destruction and for the evaluation of novel therapeutic concepts to treat rheumatic diseases. However, gene transfer into synovial fibroblasts faces sev ...

Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by inflammation of the joints and degradation and invasion by fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) of the cartilage. To assess the invasiveness of FLS an in vitro invasion assay was developed. In this invasion assay the FLS grow through an artificial m ...

Fibrocytes circulate in the peripheral blood, produce collagen and other matrix proteins, and express cell surface markers indicative of a hematopoetic origin distinguishing them from fibroblasts. Circulating fibrocytes were first identified in 1994 in a model system of wound re ...

The production of cytokines and other inflammatory products in chronic/sterile inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis might be induced in monocytes/macrophages by direct cellular contact with stimulated T-cells. Studies of cell-cell interactions are usual ...

Natural Killer (NK) cells are cells of the innate immune system with characteristic effector functions, including recognition and lysis of virus-infected or tumor cells and production of immunoregulatory cytokines, particularly interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). NK cells account for b ...

B-cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells are key players in protective immunity, but also in autoimmune disease. To understand their various functions in the initiation and maintenance of autoimmune pathology, a detailed dissection of their functional diversity is mandatory. ...

The role of B-cells and autoantibodies in tissue destructive events of autoimmune diseases is emerging, and thereby increasing interest in identifying the presence and location of autoreactive B-cells and autoantibody secreting plasma cells. For visualization and analysis of the ...

Mononuclear cells often form highly organized lymphoid structures in the chronically inflamed synovial tissue of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) within which B-cells are activated and may differentiate into effector plasma cells. The analysis of those activated B-cells ...

Determination of the complex secretory proteome of adipocytes and its metabolic changes induced by drug treatment such as insulin or rosiglitazone is possible with the advanced proteomics technologies described herein. To study the secreted proteins of adipocytes, a 2D- liquid chr ...

Adipose tissue is increasingly recognized as a metabolically active endocrine organ with multiple functions beyond its lipid storage capability. Various constituents of the tissue, such as mature adipocytes and stromal vascular cells, have distinct functions. For example, they ...

The broad definition of a stem cell is a cell that has the ability to self-renew and differentiate into one or more specialized terminally differentiated cell types. It has become evident that stem cells persist in, and can be isolated from, many adult tissues. Adipose tissue has been shown to contain a p ...

The mouse embryo fibroblast cell lines 3T3-L1 and C3H10T1/2 differentiate to adipocytes that exhibit similar insulin regulation of lipogenesis. These cell lines, however, differ appreciably in the processes that produce the major regulator PPARγ. Each line is stimulated by a mixture of ...

Obesity is characterized by increased adiposity of visceral and subcutaneous depots as well as other organs, including the vasculature. These fat depots secrete various hormone-like proteins implicated in metabolic homeostasis (e.g., adiponectin, resistin), the central cont ...

Much of the research devoted to understanding adipose tissue development is currently performed in vitro. Several cell culture models, including preadipocyte cell lines and primary culture of adipose-derived stromal vascular precursor cells, are commonly used to study molecul ...

Adipose tissue contains cell types other than adipocytes that may contribute to complications linked to obesity. For example, macrophages have been shown to infiltrate adipose tissue in response to a high-fat diet. Isolation of the stromal-vascular fraction of adipose tissue allows o ...