Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học General Psychiatry cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Somatic mutations in mitochondria: the chicken or the egg? | Available online http content 7 5 179 Commentary Somatic mutations in mitochondria the chicken or the egg Caroline Ospelt and Steffen Gay Center of Experimental Rheumatology Zurich Switzerland Corresponding author Caroline Ospelt Published 16 August 2005 Arthritis Research Therapy 2005 7 179-180 DOI ar1809 This article is online at http content 7 5 179 2005 BioMed Central Ltd See related research by Da Sylva et al. in issue http content 7 4 R844 Abstract Somatic mutations of mitochondrial DNA have been detected in various pathologies such as cancer neurodegenerative diseases cardiac disorders and aging in general. Now it has been found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis also have a higher incidence of mitochondrial mutations in synoviocytes and synovial tissue compared with patients with osteoarthritis. Furthermore it has been shown that these mutations possibly result in changed peptides that are presented by major histocompatibility complex II and thus might be recognized as non-self by the immune system. Further studies will show whether these mutations are actually able to trigger autoimmune inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis or whether they must be considered epiphenomena of cellular damage in chronic inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis RA is one of the most common systemic autoimmune diseases. However the pathophysiological mechanisms are still not fully understood and the etiology is simply unknown. Biomedical researchers have investigated various aspects of this intricate disease. Da Sylva and colleagues have now analyzed yet another piece in the RA-puzzle . In a recent article in Arthritis Research Therapy this group analyzed the presence of mitochondrial DNA mtDNA mutations in patients with RA and their possible role in the pathogenesis of RA 1 . The sequencing of RNA transcribed from the mitochondrial MT-ND1 gene showed a higher mutational burden
