Trial reportArthritis research & therapy2016
B cell depletion therapy upregulates Dkk-1 skin expression in patients with systemic sclerosis: association with enhanced resolution of skin fibrosis.
Trial report in Arthritis research & therapy, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of rituximab therapy in patients with systemic sclerosis disease (SSc): systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Pooled it
- Deep phenotyping of skin tissue remodeling in patients with systemic sclerosis treated with CD19-CAR T cells.Nature communications · 2026Article
- DKK3-CKAP4 signaling drives fibroimmune remodeling and hair follicle miniaturization in androgenetic alopecia.Theranostics · 2026Article
- Rituximab in Connective Tissue Disease-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease: From Immunopathogenesis to Therapeutic Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Effector and regulatory B-cell imbalance in systemic sclerosis: cooperation or competition?Clinical rheumatology · 2024Review
- Fibrosis-the tale of H3K27 histone methyltransferases and demethylases.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Extracellular matrix stiffness-The central cue for skin fibrosis.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2023Review
- Wnt/β-catenin signalling: function, biological mechanisms, and therapeutic opportunities.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2022Review
- Role of B-Cell in the Pathogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- Pathogenetic Aspects of Systemic Sclerosis: A View Through the Prism of B Cells.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
- B cells in systemic sclerosis: from pathophysiology to treatment.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Review
- A 3-Year Observational Study of Patients with Progressive Systemic Sclerosis Treated with an Intensified B Lymphocyte Depletion Protocol: Clinical and Immunological Response.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Balanced Wnt/Dickkopf-1 signaling by mesenchymal vascular progenitor cells in the microvascular niche maintains distal lung structure and function.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2021Article
- Rehabilitation of the face and temporomandibular joint in systemic sclerosis.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2021Article
- The Roles of Immune Cells in the Pathogenesis of Fibrosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Is biological therapy in systemic sclerosis the answer?Rheumatology international · 2020Review
- Targeting very early systemic sclerosis: a case-based review.Rheumatology international · 2019Review
- B cell depletion treatment decreases CD4+IL4+ and CD4+CD40L+ T cells in patients with systemic sclerosis.Rheumatology international · 2019Article
- Article
- The Greek (Hellenic) rheumatology over the years: from ancient to modern times.Rheumatology international · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRituximab (RTX) may favorably affect skin and lung fibrosis in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc); however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown. We aimed to explore the hypothesis that RTX may mediate its antifibrotic effects by regulating the expression of Dickkopf-1 (Dkk-1), an inhibitor of the Wnt pathway.
methodsFourteen patients with SSc and five healthy subjects were recruited. Dkk-1 expression was immunohistochemically assessed in skin biopsies obtained from 11 patients with SSc (8 treated with RTX and 3 with standard treatment), whereas DKK1 gene expression was assessed in 3 patients prior to and following RTX administration.
resultsIn baseline biopsies obtained from all patients with SSc but not in healthy subjects, Dkk-1 was undetectable in skin fibroblasts. Following RTX treatment, four out of eight patients had obvious upregulation of Dkk-1 skin expression. Similarly, RTX treatment correlated with a significant 4.8-fold upregulation of DKK1 gene expression (p = 0.030). In contrast, TGFβ expression in the upper dermis was significantly attenuated following treatment. Moreover, this decreased expression of TGFβ in the skin was significantly more pronounced in the subgroup of patients with Dkk-1 upregulation. In this subgroup TGFβ was downregulated by 50.88 % in contrast to only 15.98 % in patients who did not have Dkk-1 upregulation (p = 0.022).
conclusionsThis is the first study demonstrating a link between B cell depletion and skin Dkk-1 upregulation in patients with SSc. RTX-mediated B cell depletion may mechanistically function via the recently established TGFβ-Dkk-1 axis in improving skin fibrosis.
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