Sang Chul Bae

A recent study in the North American White population has documented the association of a common STAT4 haplotype (tagged by rs7574865) with risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus. To replicate this finding in the Korean population, we performed a case-control association study. We genotyped 67 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the STAT1 and STAT4 regions in 1123 Korean patients with RA and 1008 ethnicity-matched controls. The most significant four risk SN

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T'ai chi increased knee extensor muscle endurance and bone mineral density in older women with osteoarthritis, and decreased their fear of falling during daily activities. Further study with long-term follow-up is needed to substantiate the role of t'ai chi exercise in the prevention of fall and its related fracture.

Dietary supplementation of antioxidants at 900 mg/day for 4 weeks did not change the blood biomarkers of inflammation and disease severity of RA patients under conventional medical treatments. Further considerations for dose-response relationships, duration of supplementation, and susceptible biomarkers are required.

OBJECTIVE: The Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) is a widely used, easily administered functional scale that has high reliability and validity. Although translated versions of HAQ are available, no Korean version exists. Our aim was to translate and confirm the reliability and validity of a Korean language version of the HAQ. METHODS: HAQ was translated into Korean by 3 translators and translated back into English by 3 different translators. Four questions were modified for the Korean cultur

These results suggest proper antioxidant nutrient intake management may reduce free radical generation and improve antioxidant status in RA patients.

Mammalian Toll-like receptors (TLR) play an important role in both adaptive immunity and innate immunity. Genetic variations within TLR genes are known to be associated with a variety of inflammatory and infectious diseases. TLR9 is potentially associated with autoimmune diseases, because it participates in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the maturation of dendritic cells. We investigated the association of four TLR9 gene polymorphisms (-1486 T>C, -1237 C>T, +1174 A>G and +2848