[Acid polysaccharides (glycosaminoglycans) of the articular cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis]. / Kislye polisakharidy (glikozaminoglikany) sustavnogo khriashcha pri revmatoidnom artrite

As a result of histochemical investigation of the articular hyaline cartilage in 22 pateints with rheumatoid arthritis data were obtained on the decrease and redistribution of acid polysaccharides glycosamine glucane including keratosulphates, which led to an impartment of the cartilage supply and development therein of destructive processes. It was established that the most pronounced changer occurred in the main substance of the cartilage; changes in chondrocytes, according to the authors, were of secondary nature.

[Formation and destruction of the skin collagen structures in systemic scleroderma]. / Formirovanie i destruktsiia kollagenovykh struktur kozhi bol'nykh sistemnoi sklerodermiei.

Histological, electron microscopic, and morphometric studies of skin biopsies from 70 patients with systemic sclerodermia showed an increase in biosynthetic processes both in the affected and nonaffected parts of the skin. Enhanced neofibrillogenesis was found only in areas of sclerodermic lesions. Abnormalities in newly formed collagen structures as well as splitting of newly formed collagen fibrillae into microfibrillae were observed. In unaffected skin areas two types of destruction of collagen fibrillae were observed: extracellular destruction and fibroplasia.

[Study of an articular cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis by the immunofluorescence method]. / Immunofliuorestsentnoe izuchenie sustavnogo khriashcha pri revmatoidnom artrite.

The immunomorphological examinations of 20 biopsy specimens of articular cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis at various stages of the pathological process showed immunoglobulins of different classes and complement (C'3) to penetrate into the articular cartilage. In early stages mostly IgG was detected, and with increasing destructive processes in the matrix IgM was found. A certain tropism in the distribution of immunoglobulins in the cartilage matrix to the zones of chondrocytic capsules was observed which could be associated with the direction of immune reactions towards chondrocytes. The articular cartilage tissue may be the basis for the development of the autoimmune process and maintain permanent inflammatory process in the synovial membrane of the joint with local antibody synthesis. The process of phagocytosis of the antigenic substances of the articular cartilage or immune complexes deposed in it underlies the distribution of pannus.

[Morphologic changes in the chorio-allantoic membrane and organs of chick embryos inoculated with blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (concerning the viral etiology of systemic lupus erythematosus)]. / Morfologicheskie izmeneniia khorionallantoisnoi obolochki i organov kurinykh émbrionov, zarazhennykh krov'iu bol'nykh sistemnoi krasnoi volchankoi (k voprosu o virusnoi étiologii sistemnoi krasnoi volchanki)

Morphological studies of 14 chorionallantoic membranes and organs of chick embryos which had been infected on the 7--8th day of incubation with leucocytic mass from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were carried out. Corresponding virological and morphological control studies were performed. The changes observed were repeatedly reproduced in multiple inoculations (from the 2nd to the 16th passage). Apart from morphological changes, which may be listed among general pathological processes (impairment of the circulation, dystrophy, proliferation), changes testifying to a possible cytopathic effect disintegration of nuclei, formation of gigantic cells and multinuclear symplasts were also noted. The most pronounced changes, both in the chorionallantoic membrane and in internal organs, were observed on the 3rd--5th passage and on the 3rd--5th day of incubation following inoculation. They correlated with the clinical activity of the process in patients from whom the blood for inoculation had been taken. The data obtained justify the assumption concerning the existence in the blood of the patients with systemic lupus erythematosus a transplantable agent producing a cytopathic action, and may be considered as a new indirect corroborative evidence in favour of the concept of the viral nature of systemic lupus erythematosus.

[Role of histiocytic and parenchymatous elements of the liver in biosynthesis of reactive blood glycoproteins (haptoglobin and ceruloplasmin)]. / Rol' gistiotsitarnykh i parenkhimatoznykh élementov pecheni v biocinteze reaktivnykh glikoproteinov krovi (gaptoglobina i tseruloplazmina).

Synthesis of haptoglobin and ceruloplasmin was found to occur in liver parenchyma under conditions of obligatory participation of the tissue mesenchymal structural elements. Dependence of the blood glycoproteins hyperproduction on the processes of proliferation, occurring in hystiocytic structural elements of liver, was detected after administration into rabbits of zymosan, which stimulated the reticuloendothelial cells, of turpentine (causing inflammation in subcutaneous fatty tissue) or of intracellular cytoplasmic soluble antigens of beta-haemolytic streptococcus A.

[Stomatological manifestations in Sjögren's disease and syndrome]. / Stomatologicheskie proiavleniia bolezni i sindroma Shegrena.

For diagnosis of SS and SD and the detection of early stages of disease one should necessarily take into account the symptom complex of "major" (salivary gland enlargement, xerostomia, exacerbation of parotitis) and "minor" stomatological signs (multiple cervical caries, dry lips, perlèche, mycotic and herpetic stomatitis, lymphadenopathy). The initial, marked and late stages were defined according to a degree of expression of stomatological manifestations. The initial stage prevailed in SS, the late stage in SD. The chief method of examination were sialometry, sialography and minor salivary gland biopsy. Sialography was widely used as a less traumatic diagnostic procedure. In addition to common signs with SD, salivary gland involvement was characterized by changes typical of SS combined with rheumatic disease (sclerosis in sclerodermia, vasculitis in RA and SLE, nuclear pathology in SLE).