We examined synovial-fluid cells from 15 patients with reactive arthritis after yersinia infection for the presence of yersinia antigens. Extensive bacterial cultures of the synovial fluid were negative. All the samples were studied by immunofluorescence with use of a rabbit antiserum to Yersinia enterocolitica O:3 and a monoclonal antibody to Y. enterocolitica O:3 lipopolysaccharide. Synovial-fluid cells from 41 patients with other rheumatic diseases served as controls. Synovial-fluid cells from 10 patients with reactive arthritis after yersinia infection stained positively on immunofluorescence; rabbit antiserum and the monoclonal antibody yielded similar results. In most patients the percentage of positive cells ranged from 1 to 10 percent, but in one patient nearly all the cells in the sample stained strongly. Most of the positively stained cells were polymorphonuclear leukocytes, but yersinia antigens were also found in mononuclear phagocytes. All the control samples were negative. Synovial-fluid cell deposits from nine patients were also studied by Western blotting with use of the same antibodies. The results were positive in six of the nine cell deposits from patients with reactive arthritis and in none of the 10 cell deposits from control patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We conclude that in patients with reactive arthritis after yersinia infection, microbial antigens can be found in synovial-fluid cells from the affected joints.

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Abstract. Laine M, Luukkainen R, Toivanen A

Oral mucosal lesions or dental enamel defects may be the only presenting features of coeliac disease. A series of 128 patients with coeliac disease (CD) on a gluten-free diet (GFD), 8 patients with a newly diagnosed CD, and 30 healthy controls participated in a clinical and histopathological study of their oral mucosa. Oral mucosal lesions occurred in 71/128 GFD-treated CD patients. in 4/8 untreated and in 10/30 controls, and oral symptoms in 85/128, in 6/8 and in 10/30, respectively. Five CD patients had aphthous ulcers. Moderate to severe lymphocytic inflammation occurred in 36/117 and in 14/117 of the biopsy specimens of GFD-treated CD patients, in 1/8 and 2/8 of untreated CD patients, and in 3/30 and in 1/30 of controls, respectively. Intraepithelial T-cells were significantly more frequent in GFD-treated CD patients than in controls. There was no difference between untreated CD patients and controls. In the lamina propria of the GFD-treated CD patients, T-cells were more frequent than in the other groups. Mast cells were significantly more frequent in patients with GFD-treated CD. Nine GFD-treated CD patients had raised serum endomysium IgA antibody titres, although five of them reported to follow a strict GFD. A lack of strict compliance with a GFD may be related to the high prevalence of oral changes and symptoms. In addition, T-cell infiltration in the oral mucosa tends to increase with a longer duration of CD, independent of GFD-treatment. Clinically, it is important to study the oral cavity of patients suspected of having CD where the only clue to the disease may reside, since no less than 66% of the patients in this study had oral symptoms.