Gary S. Firestein, MD

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Dr. Firesteins research efforts have focused on the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). His laboratory helped define the synovial cytokine profile of RA and demonstrated the dominance of macrophage and fibroblast products as opposed to the expected T cell cytokines. These studies contributed to the development of the highly effective anti-TNF approaches in RA. Recently, Dr. Firestein has focused his attention on synoviocyte transformation in RA as a mechanism of joint destruction. His group was the first to describe somatic mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor genes in the RA synovium. The mutations were subsequently demonstrated to be dominant negative and increased the cartilage invasiveness of these cells. Dr. Firesteins laboratory has also worked extensively on metalloproteinase and cytokine gene regulation in synoviocytes by MAP kinases and NF-kB as well as on novel gene therapy approaches to RA.UC San Diego Health LinksFor more information, see http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/arthritis/Pages/default.aspx.