Centocor Microarray Study of Patients

Our hypothesis is that hematopoietic stem cells are very sensitive to elevated levels of TNFa, which potentiates their differentiation into myeloid effector cells. During their migration from the bone marrow to the end organ, these cells express a unique set of genes that function to prime these cells to respond to critical differentiation signals. Elucidation of this transcriptome through microarray analysis will provide insight into novel drug targets and a formal understanding of the biochemical and molecular genetic events linking IMIDs. To test our hypothesis, will determine the transcriptome in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and isolated monocytes from 20 normal healthy donors, 10 patients with psoriatic arthritis, 10 patients with psoriasis, 10 patients with Crohn's disease and 10 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The transcriptome will also be examined in inflamed intestinal tissue from patients with Crohn's disease, psoriatic skin and synovial tissue from patients with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.