Myositis: an update on pathogenesis.
OBJECTIVE
The etiology and much about the pathogenesis of the inflammatory myopathies remain a mystery. In this review, we investigate recent research efforts to understand the pathogenesis of the diverse entities of polymyositis (PM), dermatomyositis (DM), and inclusion body myositis (IBM), diseases that result from interactions between environmental risk factors and genetic susceptibility.


RESULTS
Over the past year, there has been considerable progress toward better understanding of IBM, with relatively few developments toward understanding PM and DM. Although these diseases may share some common clinical phenotypic and serologic components, they differ on a molecular and cellular level.


CONCLUSIONS
The need for definitive, safer therapies in these diseases makes vital the search for defining detailed pathogenesis of inflammation and muscle fiber damage at the molecular level.
Christopher-Stine
Lisa
L
Division of Rheumatology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Plotz
Paul H
PH
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009220:Myositis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology*; D012307:Risk Factors