Clinical Research Studies

Clinical investigation in arthritis is increasingly reliant upon both clinical outcome measures as well as on identifying biochemical, cellular, and molecular markers of disease activity. In order to effectively pursue this type of investigation, acquiring both clinical information from patients with arthritis as well as samples of their blood, fluid from their joints, feces, urine and in some cases biopsies of joint tissue, and surgical specimens is a prerequisite. This research proposal will allow the development of a bank of tissue, synovial fluid, blood, feces and urine from patients with arthritis for use in ongoing and future investigations of the pathogenesis of disease and response to therapy. We currently envision evaluating tissue samples obtained for the expression of cytokines (such as IL-1, TNF, and IL6), expression of the different isoforms of cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and COX-2) and phospholipase A2 enzymes, nitric oxide synthases (iNOS, cNOS), adhesion molecules, and matrix metalloproteinases with immunohistochemistry and/or in situ hybridization.