Christian Geier

State University of New York Upstate Medical University | SUNY Upstate Medical · Division of Rheumatology

The importance of DC in regulating immune responses led us to consider that a DC subset may be driving RA-associated HF. We hypothesized that in the peripheral blood this DC population would feature an activated phenotype (increased HLA-DR expression) and increased migratory capacity (CCR2 expression) and would be associated with markers of left ve...

Background/Purpose: Diastolic dysfunction and heart failure with preserved EF are more prevalent in RA. We have previously shown increased staining for citrullinated substrates in necropsied hearts of RA patients. We hypothesized that individuals with RA may generate antibodies against citrullinated myocardial proteins and that such antibodies may...

Although tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) have favorably altered the treatment landscape for patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), there is limited data regarding TNFi persistence and reasons for discontinuation. This is an observational time-to-event study utilizing data collected for a prospective multiple-disease registry of US V...

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway integrates metabolic cues into cell fate decisions. A particularly fateful event during the adaptive immune response is the engagement of a T cell receptor by its cognate antigen presented by an antigen-presenting cell (APC). Here, the induction of adequate T cell activation and lineage specificati...

Background / Hypothesis The presentation of MHC-peptide complexes to T lymphocytes via antigen-presenting cells (APC) is a crucial step in the initiation of immune responses. Dendritic cells (DC) are potent APC with remarkable plasticity that are classically divided into myeloid (CD1c+ and CD141+ mDC) and plasmacytoid (pDC) subsets. Decreases in th...

We found extensive alterations in the DC compartment in RA, including a significant decrease in the major CD1c+ subset and the emergence of anomalous HLA-DR+ non-lymphoid cells with antigen-presenting potential that are candidate DC subsets. The novel subsets included one resembling CD14+ monocyte-derived DC, a subset of which also expressed CD1c i...

Background/Purpose: Dendritic cells (DC) are specialized antigen-presenting cells (APC), considered to have a central role in regulating immune responses. Prior studies, which we confirm, showed numeric decreases of 'canonical' myeloid (mDC) and plasmacytoid (pDC) DC in RA, and led us to hypothesize that depletion of canonical DC is only one manife...

A 62-year-old man presented with excruciating joint pains, back stiffness and numbness of his hands and feet. Over the past 18 months, he had experienced similar episodes for which the diagnoses of bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and lateral epicondylitis had been made. Physical examination revealed polyarticular arthritis affecting the shoulders,...

A previously healthy 66-year-old woman living in the Mid-Atlantic USA presented to the hospital with lethargy, ataxia and slurred speech. 2 weeks prior she had removed a tick from her right groin. She reported malaise, fevers, diarrhoea, cough and a rash. Physical examination revealed a maculopapular rash on her chest, and lung auscultation reveale...