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June 22, 2010
Scientists Explore Why Some Psoriasis Patients Suffer Joint Damage
A new grant from the National Psoriasis Foundation could help University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) scientists find ways to forecast which patients with the red, flaky skin disorder are most likely to suffer from an arthritic disease that sometimes follows.
With the $200,000 grant, Christopher Ritchlin, M.D., M.P.H. and colleagues plan to spend two years following between 60 and 100 patients with both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Over that time, they'll track how popular medications (like methotrexate and newer anti-TNF drugs) affect participants' levels of DC-STAMP - a molecule that plays a role in autoimmunity and the formation of osteoclasts, or bone-absorbing cells. Ritchlin's team, in concert with URMC professor of Orthopedics Edward Schwarz, Ph.D., was the first ever to implicate DC-STAMP as a potential biomarker for any form of arthritis, igniting a blaze of similar research in the field.
Recent Publications
- (2013 May 01). Anti-oxidation treatment of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene components to decrease periprosthetic osteolysis: evaluation of osteolytic and osteogenic properties of wear debris particles in a murine calvaria model. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 15, 325.
- (2013 Apr 15). Cellular and Molecular Factors in Flexor Tendon Repair and Adhesions: A Histological and Gene Expression Analysis. Connect Tissue Res. In press.
- (2013 Mar 01). PTH-enhanced structural allograft healing is associated with decreased angiopoietin-2-mediated arteriogenesis, mast cell accumulation, and fibrosis. J Bone Miner Res. 28, 586-97.
