Mixed connective tissue disease connective tissue disease is not necessarily associated with serum antibodies directed against the U1-RNP, and MCTD is associated with a more clearly defined set of signs/symptoms. MCTD combines features of scleroderma, myositis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis (with some sources adding polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and inclusion body myositis) and is thus considered an overlap syndrome. MCTD commonly causes: It has been associated with HLA-DR4. Distinguishing laboratory characteristics are a positive, speckled anti-nuclear antibody and an anti-U1-RNP antibody. The prognosis of mixed connective tissue disease is in one third of cases worse than that of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In spite
Gut-associated lymphoid tissue and thymus, not all vertebrates show bone marrow, lymph nodes or germinal centers, what means that not all vertebrates can generate lymphocytes in bone marrow. This different distribution of the adaptive organs in the different groups of vertebrates suggests GALT as the very first part of the adaptive immune system in vertebrates. It has been suggested that from this existing GALT, and due to the pressure put by commensal bacteria in gut that coevolved with vertebrates, later specializations as thymus, spleen or lymph nodes appeared as part of the adaptive immune system. Gut-associated lymphoid tissue Gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) is