Inflammation and inflammatory cytokines in synovial fluid (SF) contribute to OA progression. Intra-articular (IA) injections of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are employed to treat OA in both humans and animals. MSCs secrete paracrine pro-inflammatory and anabolic signaling molecules that promote tissue repair. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of OASF on the gene expression of paracrine signaling molecules by MSCs.
Methods: The effects of Lipopolysaccharide
selleck kinase inhibitor (LPS) and interleukin (IL)-1 beta as well as both normal (N) and osteoarthritis (OA) SF stimulations on the expression of paracrine pro-inflammatory (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-8), modulatory (IL-6) and anabolic (vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1 and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1) signaling molecules by equine bone marrow multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (eBM-MSCs) was investigated employing reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR).
Results: In contrast with NSF, OASF significantly up-regulated the expression click here of VEGF in eBM-MSCs. Both NSF and OASF significantly down-regulated the expression of IL-1 beta. LPS and IL-1 beta significantly increased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-8 and IL-6; and IL-1 beta and IL-8 respectively).
Discussion: We conclude that the transcription of paracrine signaling molecules in eBM-MSCs is modulated by SF. Furthermore, OA alters the properties of SF and the response of eBM-MSCs.
Finally, the effects of LPS or IL-1 beta stimulation are distinct to that observed following stimulations with OASF. (C) 2013 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“SETTING: A national tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance survey in Tanzania.
OBJECTIVE : To compare the performance of the Genotype (R) MTBDRplus line-probe assay (LPA) on smear-positive sputum specimens with conventional culture and isoniazid (INH) plus rifampicin (RMP) drug susceptibility testing (DST).
DESIGN: Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates tested at the Tanzanian Central TB Reference Laboratory (CTRL) were submitted for quality assurance of phenotypic DST to its supranational Quisinostat reference laboratory (SRL), together with ethanol-preserved sputum specimens for LPA DST.
RESULTS: Only 321 samples could be tested using LPA; of these, three were identified as being non-tuberculous mycobacteria using CTRL DST. Both tests had 269 sets with interpretable results. CTRL DST yielded almost the same number of interpretable results as LPA, with 90% concordance (kappa = 0.612, P < 0.001). Five (1.9%) multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, 46 (17.1%) resistant to INH only and 0 RMP only, were found by CTRL DST. For the LPA, these results were respectively 5 (1.9%), 26 (9.7%) and 2 (0.7%).