Ki-Jo Kim

Catholic University of Korea | CUK · Department of Internal Medicine

The rarity and heterogeneity of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) pose challenges for researching IIM in affected individuals. We analyzed integrated transcriptomic datasets obtained using muscle tissues from patients with five distinct IIM subtypes to investigate the shared and distinctive cellular and molecular characteristics. A transcripto...

Background Predicting radiographic progression in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) remains limited because of the complex interaction between multiple associated factors and individual variability in real-world settings. Hence, we tested the feasibility of artificial neural network (ANN) models to predict radiographic progression in axSpA. Methods...

Understanding the mechanistic features and molecular taxonomy of diseases holds promise for the development of more effective treatments, especially for complex heterogeneous diseases. Here, we analyzed transcriptomic datasets of salivary gland tissues from patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SjS) to identify shared and divergent cellular and molecul...

Objective: There is no recommendation for the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who developed cancer. We examined changes in the DMARDs prescription patterns associated with cancer diagnosis in RA patients. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 2,161 RA patients who visited rhe...

Objective: The shared epitope (SE) and anti-citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA) are involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This study evaluated the clinical implications of SE and ACPA in terms of disease manifestation and response to biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Methods: Patients with identifie...

Background Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease with a high clinical burden. The molecular signatures of IPF were analyzed to distinguish molecular subgroups and identify key driver genes and therapeutic targets. Methods Thirteen datasets of lung tissue transcriptomics including 585 IPF patients and 362 normal controls were...

Objectives Interstitial lung disease is a significant comorbidity and the leading cause of mortality in patients with systemic sclerosis. Transcriptomic data of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) were analysed to evaluate the salient molecular and cellular signatures in comparison with those in related pulmonary disea...

Background Tapering or stopping biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs has been proposed for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in remission, but it frequently results in high rates of recurrence. This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus (TAC) as maintenance therapy in patients with established RA in remission afte...

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In patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), there are concerns that infections may increase the risk of flares. We evaluated the association between influenza infection and SLE flares resulting in hospitalization. SLE flares resulting in hospitalization and influenza cases were ascertained from the Korean national healthcare insurance data...

Objectives: The clinical manifestations and treatment outcome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are heterogeneous. We classified RA patients into subgroups with distinct phenotypes through unsupervised clustering and evaluated the utility of this subclassification for evaluation of clinical outcome. Methods: A total of 1,103 patients wi...

Objective RA encompasses a complex, heterogeneous and dynamic group of diseases arising from molecular and cellular perturbations of synovial tissues. The aim of this study was to decipher this complexity using an integrative systems approach and provide novel insights for designing stratified treatments. Methods An RNA sequencing dataset of synov...

Introduction/Objectives The pregnancy rate in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is not fully understood and comparisons of adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) with SLE versus the general population are limited. This study aimed to estimate the pregnancy rate and APOs in Korean SLE compared to those without SLE.Method Pregnant women were identified u...

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether the influenza annual outbreak in Korea is related to hospitalisation-related flares in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Methods: The weekly frequency of hospitalisation-related SLE flares (2012-2015) was collected from the Korean National Health Insurance claim database. The weekly...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients may benefit from exercise for several reasons. However, whole-limb strengthening exercises for such patients remain poorly studied. We hypothesized that systemic strength training that includes the upper and lower extremities would improve strength per se and enhance the quality of life. Here, we investigated the...

The network-based proximity between drug targets and disease genes can provide novel insights regarding the repercussions, interplay, and repositioning of drugs in the context of disease. Current understanding and treatment for reversing of the fibrotic process is limited in systemic sclerosis (SSc). We have developed a network-based analysis for d...

Objectives: Prediction and determination of drug efficacy for radiographic progression is limited by the heterogeneity inherent in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). We investigated whether unbiased clustering analysis of phenotypic data can lead to coherent subgroups of axSpA patients with a distinct risk of radiographic progression. Methods: A g...

IntroductionCervical spine (C-spine) instability is a unique and significant characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) because its occurrence is not rare and it can cause compressive cervical myelopathy, which may lead to serious neurologic sequelae. This study evaluated the prevalence and risk factors of C-spine instabilities in RA patients with...

Background: Treatment of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SjS) is a clinical challenge with high unmet needs. Gene expression profiling and integrative network-based approaches to complex disease can offer an insight on molecular characteristics in the context of clinical setting. Methods: An integrated dataset was created from salivary gland s...

Introduction: Machine learning is applied to characterize the risk and predict outcomes in multi-dimensional data. The prediction of radiographic progression in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) remains limited. Hence, we tested the feasibility of supervised machine learning algorithms to predict radiographic progression in axSpA. Methods: This is...

Background: We aimed to investigate the effects of ambient respiratory viral infections in the general population on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) development. Methods: Data of weekly incident RA (2012-2013) were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance claims database, and those of weekly observations on eight respiratory viral infections...

Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can affect people of all ages, but it occurs most often during childbearing ages. It has been documented that the fertility rates in women with SLE is similar to those without SLE. On the other hand, the pregnancy adverse outcomes are common in pregnant women with SLE. However, the pregnancy rates in wo...

Background Antibody against cyclic citrullinated proteins (ACPA) is counted as one of the most important biomarkers in diagnosis, classification, and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The clinical implications of change in ACPA level over time remain undetermined. Objectives We examined the evolution of ACPA during disease course and assess...

Introduction Antibody against cyclic citrullinated protein (ACPA) is counted as one of the most important biomarkers in diagnosis, classification, and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We examined the evolution of ACPA during disease course and assess predictive value of time-weighted cumulative ACPA titer on radiographic progression in RA pa...

Objectives Treatment of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) can be challenging because of clinical heterogeneity. Integration of genome-scale transcriptomic profiling for patients with SSc can provide insights on patient categorisation and novel drug targets. Methods A normalised compendium was created from 344 skin samples of 173 patients with...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is therapeutically challenging due to patient heterogeneity and variability. Herein we describe a novel integration of RA synovial genome-scale transcriptomic profiling of different patient cohorts that can be used to provide predictive insights on drug responses. A normalized compendium consisting of 256 RA synovial sampl...

Over the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in how clinical data are collected, processed and utilized. Machine learning and artificial intelligence, fueled by breakthroughs in high-performance computing, data availability and algorithmic innovations, are paving the way to effective analyses of large, multi-dimensional collections of pati...

Objectives Myocardial damage is common and often silent in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this study, we investigated the clinical parameters associated with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in SLE patients using algorithms of 2016 American Society of Echocardiography/European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASE/E...

Objectives 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency is common in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as well as chronic kidney disease. In this study, we investigated the association of 25(OH)D deficiency and renal involvement in SLE patients. Methods Two hundred seventy-two SLE patients and 138 control subjects were enrolled; 102 patients with act...

Background The identification of drug repositioning targets through computational methods has the potential to provide a fast, inexpensive alternative to traditional drug discovery process. Diseases where complicated pathophysiology evolves over time are excellent targets for such methods. One such disease is Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), a chronic in...

The risks of psoriasis and palmoplantar pustulosis were significantly increased in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) treated with anti-TNF agents compared to AS patients treated without anti-TNF agents in the population-based cohort study.

Treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is challenging due to clinical heterogeneity and variability. Integration of RA synovial genome-scale transcriptomic profiling of different patient cohorts can provide insights on the causal basis of drug responses. A normalized compendium was built that consists of 256 RA synovial samples that c...

Anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (anti-TNF) therapy is used to treat a wide range of chronic inflammatory conditions. However, there have been increasing reports of development of vitiligo and alopecia areata (AA) secondary to anti-TNF therapy. In this study, we investigated the risks of vitiligo and AA in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, Croh...

We investigated the association between autoimmune thyroid disease and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) using nationwide insurance claims data for the entire Korean population. Claims data for the period 2009-2013 were retrieved from the National Health Insurance System database. SLE and thyroid disease were identified using the International Cla...

Background CT-P13 is approved in both European Union and United States, and licensed for use in 79 countries around the world as a biosimilar to innovator infliximab (INX). The independent registries of CT-P13 have been conducted in a number of European countries and Korea [1]. Objectives To evaluate safety and effectiveness of CT-P13 when adminis...

Background Antiphospholipid syndrome has been shown to be associated with increased cardiovascular mortality, but the role of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) on endothelial dysfunction remains elusive. Objectives We investigated the association between endothelial dysfunction and aPL in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Methods 188 S...

Objectives: The CD40L/CD40 pathway is involved in the pathophysiology of atherothrombotic disease, and elevated levels of soluble CD40L (sCD40L) were reported in SLE patients. However, the clinical implication of sCD40L in SLE remains elusive. Methods: We measured levels of plasma sCD40L in 241 SLE patients and 37 healthy controls and investigat...

Background and aims Heparan sulfate in glomerular basement membrane is crucial for charge-selective filtration. Heparanase, an endoglycosidase that cleave heparan sulphate, is reported to be up-regulated in several proteinuric diseases. We investigated the association of urinary heparanase level with renal indices in patients with systemic lupus er...

Objectives: Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) are present in a proportion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis but their clinical significance remains unclear. We investigated the association between aPL and thrombotic events in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, aPL profiles were evaluated in 376 rheumatoid...

Objectives: Tantalizing connections between autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have become evident with regard to their genetic and immunologic background. However, the association between these two disease entities remains unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between each ARD and...

Background Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) were reported to be found by variable range from 5 to 75% in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but their clinical significance remains undetermined. Objectives The aim of this study is to investigate the association of the presence of aPL with thrombotic events in patients with RA. Methods aPL pr...

Significance We screened rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated copy number variations (CNVs) across the whole genome and identified significant deletion variants encompassing leukocyte-specific protein 1 (LSP1) gene. Functional assays revealed that LSP1, induced by T-cell receptor activation, negatively regulates T-cell migration. Loss of Lsp1 promo...

Interactions between keratinocyte and dermal fibroblast via paracrine loop play an important role in wound repair and keloid formation. In this study, we investigated heparanase expression in activated keratinocyte, and tested its effect on the survival of dermal fibroblasts. Plasma heparanase levels were measured in scleroderma patients, and hepar...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a major cause of mortality in connective tissue disease (CTD). The survival rates and mortality-predictive factors of a nationwide registry of Korean patients with CTD-PH measured by echocardiography were determined. Patients with CTD-PH were enrolled between April 2008 and December 2012. Hemodynamic paramet...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare but serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Chronic hypoxia is known to cause PAH resulting from pulmonary vascular remodeling. We investigated the association between anemic hypoxia and PAH in SLE patients. Systolic pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) was measured in 132 SLE patients...

The complex interaction of molecules within a biological system constitutes a functional module. These modules are then acted upon by both internal and external factors, such as genetic and environmental stresses, which under certain conditions can manifest as complex disease phenotypes. Recent advances in high-throughput biological analyses, in co...

Syndecan-1 (SDC-1) is a major constituent of the endothelial glycocalyx, which plays a role in maintaining vascular homeostasis and functions as a glomerular filtration barrier. SDC-1 is readily shed into the blood under various conditions, but the clinical implication of circulating SDC-1 in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remains...

Multicentric reticulohistiocytosis (MRH) is a rare non-Langerhans histiocytosis of unknown etiology with a predilection for joint and skin. The characteristic clinical features are papulonodular skin eruptions and inflammatory polyarthritis, sometimes progressive to arthritis mutilans, a severe destructive arthropathy. Although these manifestations...

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) exist in the synovium of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), yet the role of MSC in RA is elusive. Placental growth factor (PlGF) expression is increased in RA synovial fluids, and blocking of PlGF attenuates progression of arthritis in mice. In this study, we observed that PlGF induced chemotax...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the frequency of the subclinical synovitis in hand or wrist joints of the SLE patients using ultrasonography (US) and to correlate them with clinical parameters. Forty-eight systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients without musculoskeletal (MS) involvement were enrolled and underwent clinical and labora...

Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a serious and often fatal complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but its pathogenesis is still unclear. Hypoxia-induced pulmonary vascular remodelling has been suggested to be a crucial mechanism for PAH. Objectives To investigate the association between anemic hypoxia and PAH in pati...

Background Syndecan-1 (SDC1), a transmembrane heparan-sulfate glycoprotein, is predominantly expressed by plasma cells and is a receptor for a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL). SDC1 is readily shed and released into plasma under certain pathologic conditions and remains biologically active to affect cellular behaviour of plasma cells. Plasma c...

Background The heparin sulphate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) play an important role in the charge-selective permeability of the glomerular filter. The β-D-endoglycosidase heparanase has been proposed to be important in the pathogenesis of proteinuria by selectively degrading the negatively charged side chains of H...

To estimate the point prevalence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and determine the associated factors for PH in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A prospective cross-sectional study of 114 patients with SLE was conducted in a single tertiary center. Transthoracic echocardiography was performed to estimate the pulmonary arterial press...

Significance Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that affects ∼1% of the population. Macrophage- and fibroblast-like synoviocytes are thought to play central roles in the pathogenesis of RA. They have shared and distinct features defining RA pathology. However, these features have not been systematically explored. Using global gene...

Objective: Elevated serum osteoprotegerin (OPG) levels represent an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic disease, although the underlying mechanism is not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of serum OPG levels and circulating endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) numbers, and to explore the effect of OPG on EPC apop...

Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) exist in synovium of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), yet the role of MSC in RA was elusive. Placental growth factor (PlGF) was known to be increased in RA synovial fluids, and blocking of PlGF attenuated the arthritis progression in mice. Herein, we investigated the migration of MSCs by PlGF...

Patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) paradoxically have an increased risk of thrombosis. The presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) has been observed in a substantial proportion of ITP patients, but its clinical significance remains to be established. This study retrospectively investigated the prevalence and clinical significance of...

Methotrexate is often used in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus for effective disease controlsand steroid-sparing, and has been known to involve the development of lymphoproliferative disorders for patients with autoimmune diseases. We report a case of spontaneous regression of Epstein-Barr virus-positive methotrexate-associated Hodgkin's...

Protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) is a rare syndrome of gastrointestinal protein loss that may complicate a variety of diseases. This excessive protein loss across the gut epithelium can be explained by several mechanisms, such as augmentation of the intestinal mucosal capillary permeability, mucosal disruption, intestinal or mesenteric vasculitis,...

Objectives: We assessed the prevalence of anemia at the initiation time of anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy and the change of hemoglobin level following anti-TNF therapy in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Patients and methods: Forty-three patients with AS, who received anti-TNF agents, were retrospectively analyzed in the study. Hemoglobi...

Background Overexpression of tissue factor (TF) and activation of the coagulation system are characteristic pathophysiology of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Heparanase (HPSE) is an endo-b-D-glucuronidase that cleaves heparan sulfate chains on cell surfaces and in the extracellular matrix and is released primarily from activated platelets. It has...

The aim of this study is to clarify the association between serum leptin levels and the presence of syndesmophytes in male patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Seventy-two male patients with AS and 20 age-matched healthy male controls were included. Patients were stratified by the presence of syndesmophytes. Serum leptin levels were measured...

An accumulation of misfolded proteins can trigger a cellular survival response in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, we found that ER stress-associated gene signatures were highly expressed in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synoviums and synovial cells. Proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF and IL-1β, increased the expression of GRP78/BiP,...

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a clonal disorder characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis. MDS patients are known to manifest overt rheumatic manifestations and have distinct immunological abnormalities but their clinical significance has yet to be elucidated. To investigate the prevalence of autoimmune or rheumatic manifestations in the cours...

Hyperhomocysteinemia has been shown to increase the incidence of osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress was recently shown to be associated with apoptosis in several types of cells. In this study, we determined the effect of homocysteine (Hcy) on the apoptosis of osteoblastic cells and investigated whether ER str...

Accumulating evidences have documented that angiogenesis is closely linked to inflammation and regulators of angiogenesis play key roles in various inflammatory conditions. PlGF is an angiogenic protein belonging to the VEGF family and is upregulated mainly in pathologic conditions. Recently, PlGF was discovered having a proinflammatory role in inf...

Meningitis is a rare complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), potentially leading to a fatal outcome. The demographic, clinical, and laboratory features, and the outcomes of meningitis were evaluated in Korean patients with SLE. In a retrospective medical record review of 1420 SLE patients, 20 patients who had developed septic or aseptic...

Defective control of T cell apoptosis is considered to be one of the pathogenetic mechanisms in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Oestrogen has been known to predispose women to SLE and also to exacerbate activity of SLE; however, the role of oestrogen in the apoptosis of SLE T cells has not yet been documented. In this study, we investigated the...

A 41-year-old man diagnosed initially as probable systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) visited our hospital complaining of a persistent painful oral ulcer and multiple spots like coffee beans on his trunk. Antibodies except for anti-dsDNA and anti-histone antibodies and other serologies were negative. Conventional cytotoxic and immunomodulatory agent...

Central diabetes insipidus (DI) is a disease caused by insufficient release of antidiuretic hormone. Central DI with lung cancer is very rare. Most of them are caused by the pituitary metastasis, and rarely, by the paraneoplastic syndromes. Central DI is diagnosed by the water deprivation test. The treatment consists of surgical resection, radiothe...

Although ultrasonography is regarded as the gold standard in the diagnosis of obstructive nephropathy, dilatation is sometimes not observed by ultrasonography. We report upon a case of minimally dilated obstructive nephropathy due to an ureter stone in a kidney donor with volume depletion. A 54-year-old man was admitted due to anuria and abdominal...

Amaç: Bu çalışmada ankilozan spondilitte (AS) anti-tümör nekroz faktör (anti-TNF) tedavisine başlarken anemi insidansı ve anti-TNF tedavisini takiben hemoglobin düzeyinde görülen değişiklikler değerlendirildi. Hastalar ve yöntemler: Çalışmada anti-TNF tedavisi uygulanan 43 AS hastası retrospektif olarak değerlendirildi. Hemoglobin, eritrosit sedime...