Article originally published by WMBB.

Dr. Amir Agha is a rheumatologist with Bay Medical Sacred Heart and says anyone can get arthritis but it’s commonly found in older people or those who use their hands for a living like carpenters and mechanics.

He says so many arthritis passengers wait too long to seek treatment. Dr. Agha says it’s important to seek treatment sooner rather than later so prevent permanent damage.

Copyright 2016 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved.

Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriatic Arthritis occurs when your body’s immune system causes inflammation of your skin. Psoriatic arthritis attacks your joints making them inflamed and stiff.

Approximately, 85% of the persons with psoriatic arthritis had psoriasis first and about 15% get psoriatic arthritis without a history of psoriasis. Psoriatic arthritis can be genetic, but has been known to be linked with strep throat.

Warning signs of psoriatic arthritis include pits in nail beds, fatigue, morning stiffness, eye redness and pain, heal and back pain.

An early diagnosis and treatment can prevent or limit joint damage. If you have any of these signs, call the Bay Arthritis Institute today.

Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis affects the spine and the symptoms include pain and stiffness from the neck down to the lower back for more than three months. The spine bones may fuse together, which results in a rigid spine. Anyklosing spondylitis can also cause an overgrowth of the bones, called boney fusion. And there can also be pain in ligaments and tendons, which is caused by the inflammation of the tendons.

It is important to get diagnosis and treatment to prevent significant deformity. If you have any of these signs, call the Bay Arthritis Institute today.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is commonly diagnosed when there is joint pain and stiffness occurring when the cartilage that covers the ends of the bones at the joints breaks down and causes a bony overgrowth. The cause is usually aging joints, injuries and/or obesity. The signs of osteoarthritis vary from person to person. Osteoarthritis can be treated with medication and exercise. The Bay Arthritis Institute has the solutions for osteoarthritis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis – (RA)

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a systemic disease that causes inflammation throughout the body affecting the lungs, eyes, skin, heart and blood vessels. RA commonly begins between 25 and 50, but can strike at earlier or later ages. Since only 30% of men account for having RA, female hormones may play a significant role in the onset of RA.

RA is an autoimmune disorder which leads to inflammation. Detecting RA requires a clinical evaluation, physical exam and possible X-rays to detect the join damage.

The causes of RA are genes associated with the immune system, environmental factors (viral or bacterial infection) and/or hormonal.

The best early treatment for RA are medications to prevent joint damage and/or to put the chronic disease in remission.

Exercise helps preserve joint mobility and healthy muscle tone.

If you have the following symptoms, you may have fibromyalgia:

Until recently, fibromyalgia was difficult to diagnose, but with new technology, we can determine Fibromyalgia disorder with a treatment plan to alleviate the symptoms in most cases.

Transglutaminase 2 limits murine peritoneal acute gout-like inflammation by regulating macrophage clearance of apoptotic neutrophils.

Objective

Monosodium urate monohydrate (MSU) crystals have remarkable inflammatory potential.

Gouty inflammation is spontaneously self-limited, an occurrence recognized since antiquity. Gouty synovitis is driven and sustained by neutrophil influx. Importantly, macrophage phagocytosis of apoptotic (but not necrotic) neutrophils is anti-inflammatory.

Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that efficient clearance of apoptotic neutrophils my macrophages is one of the factors that restrains the progression of gouty inflammation. Macrophage expression of transglutaminase 2 (TG2), a multifunctional protein with reciprocally regulated transamidation and purine nucleotide-binding activities, promotes apoptotic leukocyte uptake.

In this study, we tested the specific role of macrophage TG2 expression in MSU crystal-induced inflammation.

Methods

We studied MSU crystal-induced peritonitis in TG2-/- and congenic TG2+/+ mice. We also studied the effects of TG2 on apoptotic cell uptake by cultured macrophages.

Results

TG2-/- mice demonstrated more progressive neutrophilic accumulation tha did TG2=/+ mice, which was associated with delayed clearance of apoptotic neutrophils during MSU crystal-induced peritonitis. We observed defective phagocytosis of apoptotic leukocytes by TG2-/- peritoneal macrophages, which was corrected by soluble extracellular TG2. Transamidation catalytic activity of TG2 was not required to mediate macrophage uptake of apoptotic leukocytes. In contrast, the TG2 nucleotide binding site residue K173 was critical for this TG2 function. TG2 bound to GDP, ADP, or ATP (but not to GTP) rescued defective apoptotic leukocyte uptake by TG2-/- macrophages.

Conclusion

Enhancement of apoptotic neutrophil uptake by macrophage-derived TG2 restrains gout-like neutrophilic peritoneal inflammation. Differential binding of TG2 by purine nucleotides may contribute to clinical variability in the extent and duration of gouty inflammation.