By Linda on Nov 23, 2009 in Infections | comments(0)
Spondylarthritis (SpA) represents a group of arthritidies that share clinical features such as inflammatory back pain and inflammation at sites where tendons attach to bone. It includes ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis, inflammatory bowel-disease-related arthritis, reactive arthritis (ReA) and undifferentiated spondylarthritides (uSpA). Since Chlamydia trachomatis or Chlamydia pneumoniae (which are often asymptomatic) frequently cause ReA, a new study examined whether there was a connection between these two infections and uSpA. Continued
By Linda on Nov 14, 2009 in Infections | comments(0)
Inflammation has long been implicated as a contributor to pathogenesis
in many CNS illnesses, including Lyme neuroborreliosis. Borrelia
burgdorferi is the spirochete that causes Lyme disease and it is known
to potently induce the production of inflammatory mediators in a variety
of cells. In experiments where B. burgdorferi was co-cultured in vitro
with primary microglia, we observed robust expression and release of
IL-6 and IL-8, CCL2 (MCP-1), CCL3 (MIP-1?), CCL4 (MIP-1?) and CCL5
(RANTES), but we detected no induction of microglial apoptosis. In
contrast, SH-SY5Y (SY) neuroblastoma cells co-cultured with B.
burgdorferi expressed negligible amounts of inflammatory mediators and
also remained resistant to apoptosis. Continued
