SAN FRANCISCO—A 40-year-old woman shows up in the clinic with scarring alopecia, with an area of hyperpigmentation on the rim of her scalp, extending from just behind the temple to behind her ears. An examination with a dermatoscope shows hyperkeratotic follicular plugging. The case—in this example, the discoid form of cutaneous lupus erythematosus (DLE)—is one…
Insight into Crosstalk Between Bone & Immune Systems
Osteoimmunology is an emerging field that focuses on the interaction between bone and the immune system. CD4+ T cells play an important role in the bone marrow and modulate the differentiation of bone-resorbing osteoclasts. This article reviews the role of CD4+ T cells as an osteoclastogenic population in inflammatory bowel disease…
Interdisciplinary Collaboration at Wash U Advances Understanding of Immunology, Rheumatology
In June 2014, 10 members of a church group returned to St. Louis from Haiti, where they had contracted chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus previously unknown in the Western hemisphere that produces inflammatory arthritis symptoms. Because CHIKV-related arthritis mimics seronegative RA, a group of clinicians, immunologists, virologists and geneticists at the Washington University in…
EULAR 2015: Role of ACPA Positivity in Osteoarthritis
ROME, Italy—The role of ACPA positivity in osteoarthritis is coming more into focus, with results from recent studies by researchers in Germany showing that ACPA positivity apparently works in concert with rheumatoid factor positivity to enhance bone erosion and that ACPA-positive patients show signs of bone erosion before they have clinical signs of arthritis. The…
2014 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting: Immunology Update on Innate Lymphoid Cells
Experts highlight research on the overlap in innate and acquired immune responses underlying rheumatic diseases
Osteoimmunology Research May Benefit Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Cross-talk between bone biology, immune system may shed light on joint erosion, refine therapeutic targets for RA
Evolutionary Medicine Provides Insight into the Chronic Inflammatory State Note Rheumatologists at the 2013 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting
Studies on metabolism, neuroendocrinology, and immunology can broaden understanding of the pathophysiology of chronic inflammatory diseases
Immunology Research Pioneers Receive Carol Nachman Prize
Rheumatologists Gerd R. Burmester, MD, of Berlin, and Michael B. Brenner, MD, of Boston, honored with prestigious international award
Morris Reichlin Contributes Five Decades of Immunologic Advances in Rheumatology
Career marked by the quest to define the antigenic targets of autoimmunity in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), inflammatory myopathies, polymyositis, and dermatomyositis
Three Giants of Immunology at USC
Prejudice, and how I became a rheumatologist.