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Medicine and Health Sciences

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Journal Articles: Surgery

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Heightened Levels Of Antimicrobial Response Factors In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis, Prathapan Ayyappan, Robert Z. Harms, Jennifer A. Seifert, Elizabeth A. Bemis, Marie L. Feser, Kevin D. Deane, M Kristen Demoruelle, Ted R. Mikuls, V Michael Holers, Nora Sarvetnick Jan 2020

Heightened Levels Of Antimicrobial Response Factors In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis, Prathapan Ayyappan, Robert Z. Harms, Jennifer A. Seifert, Elizabeth A. Bemis, Marie L. Feser, Kevin D. Deane, M Kristen Demoruelle, Ted R. Mikuls, V Michael Holers, Nora Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Surgery

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic progressive autoimmune disease leading to considerable disability over time. The disease can be characterized by the presence of multiple autoantibodies in the serum and synovial fluid. Microbial dysbiosis is proposed to play a role in the pathogenesis of RA. Increased systemic bacterial exposure leads to elevated levels of antimicrobial response factors (ARFs) in the circulation. In the present study, we tested whether RA patients have increased levels of ARFs by analyzing the levels of multiple ARFs in serum from RA patients and healthy age and sex-matched controls. The levels of soluble CD14 (sCD14), lysozyme, …


Coordinated Induction Of Antimicrobial Response Factors In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Prathapan Ayyappan, Robert Z. Harms, Jane H. Buckner, Nora E. Sarvetnick Jan 2019

Coordinated Induction Of Antimicrobial Response Factors In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Prathapan Ayyappan, Robert Z. Harms, Jane H. Buckner, Nora E. Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Surgery

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by dysregulated autoantibody production and complement activation leading to multi-organ damage. The disease is associated with increased intestinal permeability. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that SLE subjects have increased systemic exposure to bacteria. Since bacteria induce the expression of antimicrobial response factors (ARFs), we measured the levels of a series of clinically relevant ARFs in the plasma of SLE subjects. We found that levels of sCD14, lysozyme, and CXCL16 were significantly elevated in SLE subjects. A strong positive correlation was also observed between sCD14 and SELENA-SLEDAI score. Interestingly, …