TY - JOUR T1 - Upregulation of Thrombospondin 1 Expression in Synovial Tissues and Plasma of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Role of Transforming Growth Factor-β1 toward Fibroblast-like Synovial Cells JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol DO - 10.3899/jrheum.141292 SP - jrheum.141292 AU - Takahisa Suzuki AU - Naoki Iwamoto AU - Satoshi Yamasaki AU - Ayako Nishino AU - Yoshikazu Nakashima AU - Yoshiro Horai AU - Shin-ya Kawashiri AU - Kunihiro Ichinose AU - Kazuhiko Arima AU - Mami Tamai AU - Hideki Nakamura AU - Tomoki Origuchi AU - Chikara Miyamoto AU - Makoto Osaki AU - Kaname Ohyama AU - Naotaka Kuroda AU - Atsushi Kawakami Y1 - 2015/05/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2015/04/27/jrheum.141292.abstract N2 - Objective To investigate the role of thrombospondin 1 (TSP-1) in RA. Methods Expression of TSP-1 in synovial tissues was determined by immunohistochemistry. Expression of TSP-1 in rheumatoid fibroblast-like synovial cells (FLS) was investigated by quantitative real-time PCR and ELISA. Correlations among the plasma TSP-1 and other variables in patients with RA were examined. Results Expression of TSP-1 was increased in rheumatoid synovial tissues. Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) clearly increased TSP-1 expression in FLS on both mRNA and protein levels. Changes in plasma TSP-1 were associated with those in 28-joint Disease Activity Score-erythrocyte sedimentation rate and plasma TGF-β1. Conclusion TSP-1 might be critically involved in the disease process of RA through the TGF-β1/TSP-1 axis. ER -