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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)--a widespread chronic inflammatory disease in industrialized countries--is characterized by a persistent and progressive joint destruction. The chronic pro-inflammatory state results from a mutual activation of the innate and the adaptive immune system, while the exact pathogenesis mechanism is still under discussion. New data suggest a role of the innate immune system and especially polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMNs, neutrophils) not only during onset and the destructive phase of RA but also at the chronification of the disease. Thereby the enzymatic activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO), a peroxidase strongly abundant in neutrophils, may be important: While its peroxidase activity is known to contribute to cartilage destruction at later stages of RA the almost MPO-specific oxidant hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is also discussed for certain anti-inflammatory effects. In this study we used pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) in Dark Agouti rats as a model for the chronic course of RA in man. We were able to shown that a specific detection of the HOCl-producing MPO activity provides a sensitive new marker to evaluate the actual systemic inflammatory status which is only partially detectable by the evaluation of clinical symptoms (joint swelling and redness measurements). Moreover, we evaluated the long-term pharmacological effect of the well-known anti-inflammatory flavonoid epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Thereby only upon early and continuous oral application of this polyphenol the arthritic symptoms were considerably diminished both in the acute and in the chronic phase of the disease. The obtained results were comparable to the treatment control (application of methotrexate, MTX). As revealed by stopped-flow kinetic measurements, EGCG may regenerate the HOCl-production of MPO which is known to be impaired at chronic inflammatory diseases like RA. It can be speculated that this MPO activity-promoting effect of EGCG may contribute to the pharmacological mode of action of this polyphenol.

The determination of acidic pharmaceutical and endocrine disrupting compounds at low ng/L levels in surface and wastewater requires highly selective and sensitive analytical procedures. Therefore, the water samples under study were prepared by means of solid phase extraction (SPE) for analyte enrichment and clean up. Prior to GC-NCI-MS, the polar analytes were derivatized using pentafluorobenzyl bromide. The performance of this analytical method has been revealed in fortification experiments by limits of detection ranging from 0.01 to 0.2 ng/L for, e. g., ibuprofen and 17α-ethinylestradiol, respectively. SPE may be the most rate determining step of the analytical procedure. Therefore, the performance of SPE disks and cartridges was additionally compared. Method evaluation demonstrated that even complex sample matrices, such as model wastewater or even synthetic humic acids, did not interfere with the quantification and identification of target analytes. The performance of the analytical method developed for water monitoring was further emphasized by the investigation of surface water of the River Saale and effluents of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) at Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In those samples, acidic pharmaceuticals and corresponding metabolites occurred at 0.1 ng/L for clofibric acid up to 498 ng/L for bezafibrate. Technical nonylphenol and bisphenol A were found in every water sample. Meanwhile, 17α-ethinylestradiol was determined only in one WWTP effluent sample at 1 ng/L.

Neutrophilic granulocytes, the most abundant immune cell type in the blood, are essential for the initiation as well as for the regulation and termination of acute inflammatory reactions. Thereby the enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO) formed by these cells could be a key player. Thus a newly developed method for the quick purification of neutrophilic granulocytes from blood samples and a subsequent activity staining for MPO is presented which may contribute to a better understanding of the (patho-)physiological role of this enzyme.

The key pathologic mechanism in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the destruction of cartilage by fibroblasts. In a severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse model, this process can be modulated by gene transfer using in- vasive LS48 fibroblasts. This study aims to investigate the effect of interleukins (IL) -11 and -12 on cartilage destruction when transferred into LS48, and of IL-15 when transfected into non-invasive 3T3 cells; to compare three transduc- tion systems (a lentiviral vector system, a retroviral vector system, and a par- ticle-mediated gene transfer); and to establish an in vitro cartilage destruction system based on LS48 cells. Transduced fibroblasts were injected into SCID mice knee joints, and disease progression assessed microscopically. Distinctive morphologic pattern revealed invasion of fibroblasts into the articular carti- lage by transfected, as well as non-transfected, LS48 cells. IL-12 and IL-15 did not alter swelling or cartilage destruction. Animals treated with IL-11-trans- fected cells showed reduced cartilage damage but no changes in swelling. Effi- cacy of gene transfer to establish transfected fibroblasts was shown to be > 85% for lentiviral transfer, compared to < 10% for retroviral transfer and gene gun. Furthermore, cells were co-incubated with porcine cartilage. Transduction of IL-11 led to a reduction of apoptosis in chondrocytes. These findings suggest that cartilage destruction by invasive fibroblasts can be modulated by gene transfer. Lentiviral vector systems offer the most effective approach for gene transduction. In vitro fibroblast/cartilage co-cultures present a convenient sys- tem for the assessment of novel therapeutic strategies towards reduction of articular destruction.

In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), fibroblasts have been shown to be crucial for disease progression as well as joint destruction. In the model of human/murine SCID arthritis, synovial explants as well as fibroblasts from human rheumatoid synovial membrane induce destructive arthritis in immunodeficient mice. Hereby, the underlying cartilage destruction is accomplished by murine fibroblasts. Therefore, murine destructive fibroblasts represent a promising tool to investigate destruction of articular cartilage and bone. In this context, a novel destructive murine fibroblast line (LS48) was examined for morphological, ultrastructural, immunological and functional cellular parameters. These cells were injected into knees of SCID mice. Subsequently, the animals were monitored for joint swelling and serological parameters of arthritis by radiological methods. Finally, cartilage destruction was assessed morphologically. Cultured LS48 cells exhibit characteristic features that resemble those of activated synovial fibroblasts in human RA. Expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase, interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and matrix metalloproteinases were comparable to those detected in invasive human fibroblasts. The instillation of 5 x 10(5) LS48 cells into the knee joints of SCID mice initiated a rapid progressive process, that caused cartilage destruction within 10 days, and morphological examinations revealed that articular cartilage was infiltrated by the fibroblasts injected previously. In summary, the intra-articular application of LS48 cells represents a rapid and highly reproducible model to investigate the initiation and progression of cartilage destruction in connection with RA therapy and represents an easy-to-handle animal model.

Lithiation of 6-methyl-2-(trimethylsilylamino)pyridine (APyTMSH) occurs smoothly in tetrahydrofuran (thf) affording [Li(APyTMS)(thf)]2 (1). Treatment of anhydrous lanthanoid chlorides (LnCl3, Ln=Gd, Er) with 1.5 equivalents of (1) yields the solvent-free homoleptic tris–amido complexes [Ln(APyTMS)3], (Ln=Gd (2); Ln=Er (3)). Similar treatment of LnCl3 (Ln=Gd, Er) with one equivalents of 1 putatively generates the heteroleptic species [Ln(APyTMS)2Cl], (Ln=Gd (4); Ln=Er (5)) in situ, however, these compounds undergo redistribution in hexane to yield homoleptic 2 and 3 and the anhydrous lanthanoid halides (Ln=Gd, (6), Ln=Er (7)) and were therefore not fully characterised. These lanthanoid reagents are extremely moisture sensitive as examplified by the low yield isolation of [APyH2·H]2[ErCl5(thf)] during one prepartion of 3. The structures of compounds 1, 2, 3 and 8 were characterised by X-ray crystallographic methods. The X-ray structure of 1 is a centrosymmetric dimer similar to its diethyl ether analogue. Compounds 2 and 3 are six-coordinate homoleptic mononuclear species and compound 8 comprises the unprecedented [ErCl5(thf)]− anion within an intricate hydrogen-bonded ionic system.

By combining easy and fast leukocyte enrichment with aminophenyl-fluorescein (APF) staining we developed a method to quickly and specifically address the halogenating activity of the immunological relevant blood heme peroxidases myeloperoxidase and eosinophil peroxidase, respectively. For leukocyte enrichment a two-fold hypotonic lysis procedure of the blood with Millipore water was chosen which represents a cheap, fast and reliable method to diminish the amount of erythrocytes in the samples. This procedure is shown to be suitable both to human and murine blood micro-samples, making it also applicable to small animal experiments with recurring blood sampling. As all types of leukocytes are kept in the sample during the preparation, they can be analysed separately after discrimination during the flow cytometry analysis. This also holds for all heme peroxidase-containing cells, namely neutrophils, eosinophils and monocytes. Moreover additional parameters (e.g. antibody staining) can be combined with the heme peroxidase activity determination to gain additional information about the different immune cell types. Based on previous results we applied APF for specifically addressing the halogenating activity of leukocyte peroxidases in blood samples. This dye is selectively oxidized by the MPO and EPO halogenation products hypochlorous and hypobromous acid. This approach may provide a suitable tool to gain more insights into the immune-physiological role of the halogenating activity of heme peroxidases.

Background To facilitate the development of therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the Innovative Medicines Initiative BTCure has combined the experience from several laboratories worldwide to establish a series of protocols for different animal models of arthritis that reflect the pathogenesis of RA. Here, we describe chronic pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) model in DA rats, and provide detailed instructions to set up and evaluate the model and for reporting data. Methods We optimized dose of pristane and immunization procedures and determined the effect of age, gender, and housing conditions. We further assessed cage-effects, reproducibility, and frequency of chronic arthritis, disease markers, and efficacy of standard and novel therapies. Results Out of 271 rats, 99.6% developed arthritis after pristane-administration. Mean values for day of onset, day of maximum arthritis severity and maximum clinical scores were 11.8±2.0 days, 20.3±5.1 days and 34.2±11 points on a 60-point scale, respectively. The mean frequency of chronic arthritis was 86% but approached 100% in long-term experiments over 110 days. Pristane was arthritogenic even at 5 microliters dose but needed to be administrated intradermally to induce robust disease with minimal variation. The development of arthritis was age-dependent but independent of gender and whether the rats were housed in conventional or barrier facilities. PIA correlated well with weight loss and acute phase reactants, and was ameliorated by etanercept, dexamethasone, cyclosporine A and fingolimod treatment. Conclusions PIA has high incidence and excellent reproducibility. The chronic relapsing-remitting disease and limited systemic manifestations make it more suitable than adjuvant arthritis for long-term studies of joint-inflammation and screening and validation of new therapeutics.

Macrolide antibiotics are widely used (in the order of 1g per person per year). They pass the body largely unchanged and are also not degraded in wastewater treatment plants. With not too much effort, they may be eliminated from their effluents by ozonation. The macrolide antibiotics have all a dimethylamino group at one of the carbohydrate residues in common. This functional group is the target of the ozone reaction, and clarithromycin has been selected here for a more detailed study. Since only the free amine reacts with ozone, the rate of reaction is pH dependent (at pH 7: k = 4 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1)). In analogy to the ozonolysis of trimethylamine, the main reaction is a transfer of an O-atom yielding the N-oxide (identified by HPLC/MS-MS). A minor product (10%, based on formaldehyde yields) is demethylated clarithromycin (identified by HPLC/MS-MS). The dimethylamino group is thought to be essential for the binding of the macrolide antibiotics to their target. As a consequence, chemical changes of this functional group, notably the formation of the N-oxide that is no longer a proton acceptor, inactivates these drugs as assayed by the suppression of the growth of Pseudomonas putida. This is most important for wastewater treatment, as mineralization of clarithromycin by ozone would require 100 times as much ozone.