2016
Tenascin-C drives persistence of organ fibrosis
Bhattacharyya S, Wang W, Morales-Nebreda L, Feng G, Wu M, Zhou X, Lafyatis R, Lee J, Hinchcliff M, Feghali-Bostwick C, Lakota K, Budinger GR, Raparia K, Tamaki Z, Varga J. Tenascin-C drives persistence of organ fibrosis. Nature Communications 2016, 7: 11703. PMID: 27256716, PMCID: PMC4895803, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11703.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsSystemic sclerosisToll-like receptorsOrgan fibrosisFibrosis resolutionPathogenesis of SScTreatment of SScLevels of tenascinEndogenous danger signalsSSc skin biopsy samplesSkin biopsy samplesMechanism of actionLung fibrosisPathogenic roleTLR activatorsMouse modelBiopsy samplesFibroblast activationDanger signalsMyofibroblast transformationFibrosisSSc fibroblastsCollagen gene expressionSkin fibroblastsAmplification loopTenascin
2015
A candidate gene study reveals association between a variant of the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPAR-γ) gene and systemic sclerosis
Marangoni RG, Korman BD, Allanore Y, Dieude P, Armstrong LL, Rzhetskaya M, Hinchcliff M, Carns M, Podlusky S, Shah SJ, Ruiz B, Hachulla E, Tiev K, Cracowski JL, Varga J, Hayes MG. A candidate gene study reveals association between a variant of the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPAR-γ) gene and systemic sclerosis. Arthritis Research & Therapy 2015, 17: 128. PMID: 25986483, PMCID: PMC4437446, DOI: 10.1186/s13075-015-0641-2.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsSystemic sclerosisDiscovery cohortSingle nucleotide polymorphismsPathogenesis of SScNuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gammaPeroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gammaPotent anti-fibrotic effectsPulmonary arterial hypertensionProliferator-activated receptor gammaAnti-fibrotic effectsRole of PPARGene single nucleotide polymorphismsReceptor gamma geneSSc cohortArterial hypertensionSSc patientsClinical parametersValidation cohortClinical associationsEuropean cohortReceptor gammaPPARG variantsDisease severityIntronic single nucleotide polymorphismC allele