Scientists at Cincinnati Childrens have issued the first study showing that a protein normally involved in blood clotting (fibrin), also plays an important role in the inflammatory response and development of rheumatoid arthritis. Inflammatory joint disease appears to be driven by the engagement of inflammatory cells with fibrin matrices through a specific integrin receptor, aMB2. Writing in the recent issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, scientists suggest that therapies designed to interrupt the localized interaction of inflammatory cells and fibrin may help arthritis patients.

Our study establishes that fibrin is a powerful, eventhough context-dependent, determinant of inflammatory joint disease, said Jay Degen, Ph.D., a researcher in Developmental Biology at Cincinnati Childrens and the studys lead author. These findings also suggest that pharmacologically interrupting the interaction of fibrin and aMB2 might be efficacious in the therapy of arthritic disease as well as a number of other inflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.

Affecting 2.1 million people in the United States, rheumatoid arthritis is a painful and debilitating disease involving chronic inflammation, tissue degeneration, loss of cartilage and bone and ultimately loss of joint mobility and function, as per the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Eventhough the diseases precise cause is not fully known, activation of specific components in the bodys immune system seem to play a major role in its onset and early progression, as per researchers. Fibrin deposits are a prominent feature of arthritic joints and the protein appears to be a link between systems that control inflammation and bleeding within joints. Dr. Degen and colleagues explained that in arthritic joints, the mesh-like matrices formed by fibrin to create blood clots may control local activity of inflammatory cells as well as support inappropriate tissue reorganization.


Posted by: Emily    Source

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