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Infectious Aspects and the Etiopathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

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An Erratum to this article was published on 01 February 2014

Abstract

Infections are believed to contribute to the maturation of the immune system from the innate to the adaptive phases and therefore may take part in the induction of autoimmune conditions. In the current study, we present an extensive analysis conducted on sera samples of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in order to seek evidence of previous or coexisting infectious processes using the Bio-Rad BioPlex immunoassay analyzer. We detected higher rates of serological evidence of infections with Epstein–Barr virus and cytomegalovirus viruses. Our findings may indicate a role of these viruses in the pathogenesis of RA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine ‘D’, Meir Medical Center affiliated with Tel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Kfar-Saba, Israel

    Michal Kasher Meron & Howard Amital

  2. Department of Internal Medicine B, Center for Autoimmune Diseases affiliated with Tel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, 52621, Israel

    Daniel Shepshelovich, Ori Barzilai, Maya Ram & Yehuda Shoenfeld

  3. Cellular Biology and Immunogenetics Unit, Corporación para Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad del Rosario, Medellin, Colombia

    Juan-Manuel Anaya

  4. Rheumatology Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Roberto Gerli

  5. Laboratorio di Patologia Clinica, Ospedale Civile, 30027 S, Donà di Piave, Venice, Italy

    Bizzaro Nicola

  6. Laura Schwarz-Kipp, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yehuda Shoenfeld

Authors
  1. Michal Kasher Meron
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  2. Howard Amital
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  3. Daniel Shepshelovich
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  4. Ori Barzilai
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  5. Maya Ram
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  6. Juan-Manuel Anaya
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  7. Roberto Gerli
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  8. Bizzaro Nicola
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  9. Yehuda Shoenfeld
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yehuda Shoenfeld.

Additional information

M. K. Meron and H. Amital equally contributed to this paper.

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Meron, M.K., Amital, H., Shepshelovich, D. et al. Infectious Aspects and the Etiopathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Clinic Rev Allerg Immunol 38, 287–291 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12016-009-8158-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12016-009-8158-6

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