Chemokine

Stromal cell

Dermatology

Cancer research

CXCR4

Rheumatoid arthritis

Immunology

Rheumatoid factor

Inflammation

Internal medicine

Medicine

Stromal cell-derived factor 1

British journal of rheumatology

Stromal cell-derived factor-1a in rheumatoid arthritis SIR, Stromal cell-derived factor-1a (SDF-1a) is a CXC class of chemokine with multiple cellular effects w1x.It is so named as it was first isolated from a bone-marrow stromal cell line w2x.It is an 8 kDa peptide and exists in a and b isoforms.These are encoded by a single gene and arise by alternative splicing w3x.Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by proliferation of synoviocytes, pannus formation and infiltration of inflammatory cells.Of these, CD4+ memory T cells play a pivotal role in the initiation and maintenance of rheumatoid synovitis.Migration of T cells to the synovium w4x and their retention in a perivascular distribution w5x is facilitated by SDF-1.SDF-1 additionally inhibits activation-induced apoptosis of T cells w4x.B-cell accumulation and formation of ectopic germinal centres is another characteristic feature of rheumatoid synovitis.This is stimulated by SDF-1 which is expressed on synovial fibroblasts w6x.SDF-1a activates fibroblastlike synoviocytes, stimulates angiogenesis and degrades cartilage matrix by stimulating release of matrix metalloprotease 3 from human chondrocytes w7x.These actions suggest that SDF-1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of RA.We have estimated the levels of SDF-1a in plasma of 49 patients with RA and correlated these with measures of disease activity.These results are discussed in this communication.Forty-nine consecutive patients with RA were studied.All the patients fulfilled the 1987 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for RA w8x.The median age of the patients was 46 yr (range 19-76).Forty-four were females.Thirty-four were seropositive.The median duration of RA was 5.25 yr (range 0.25-20).In all, 35 patients were receiving disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs; methotrexate n = 30,

Stromal cell-derived factor-1 in rheumatoid arthritis