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RESEARCH PRODUCT

072 Collagen gene expression and tenascin pattern in normal, osteoarthritic, and rheumatoid connective tissues

subject

description

The extracellular matrix consists of four major components, namely collagens, elastin, proteoglyeans and glycoproteins. Collagens are important members of the ECM, forming a family of at least t 3 different structurally related proteins. Tenascin, synonymous with cytoactin, hexabrachion and J1, is a new member of matrix glycoproteins with a molecular mass of 1200 kD. It exhibits a "hexabrachion" structure with an ellipsoid central globule from which six arms of 75 nm in length diverge in a T-junction arrangement [1]. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) belongs to the group of connective tissue diseases. In contrast to abundant data about ECM-changes in systemic sclerodermia [2] the matrix alterations in RA are not carefully examined until now. The aim of this study was to characterize matrix changes in RA and to compare the results with osteoarthritis (OA).