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Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an autoimmune condition characterized by chronic inflammation and abnormal ossification as the primary features of the disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of C‑X‑C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) in ossification from patients with AS. CXCR4 expression was assessed by western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry analysis of tissues obtained from patients with AS and controls. Fibroblasts were isolated, cultured and incubated with AMD 3100 and stromal cell‑derived factor‑1 to inhibit and promote CXCR4 levels, respectively. CXCR4 was upregulated in hip synovial tissues from patients with AS compared with that observed in controls. AS fibroblasts exhibited increased proliferation and growth rates. Inhibition of CXCR4 increased the phosphorylation of β‑catenin and downregulated the expression of β‑catenin, v‑myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog, cyclin D1 and osteocalcin. Alizarin red staining demonstrated a decrease in biomineralization activity following the inhibition of CXCR4. These data support the hypothesis that inhibiting CXCR4 in patients with AS may suppress the ossification of fibroblasts.

The percentage rate of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) ranges between 20 and 70% in various studies worldwide. To further explore the definite rate in China, three methods, including immunohistochemistry for EBV latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), in situ hybridization (ISH) for EBV-encoded RNA (EBER)-1 and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for EBV BamHI‑W fragment, were employed to detect EBV in 59 cases of HL in China using paraffin-embedded tissue samples. Our results revealed that the PCR method presented the highest (44/59, 74.6%) detection rate among the three methods. The other two methods identified 66.1% (39/59, LMP1) and 67.8% (40/59, EBER1 ISH) EBV-positive results, respectively. Three samples were positive for LMP1 but negative when using EBER1 ISH, while another four samples were EBER1-positive but LMP1-negative. Of the four major histopathological subtypes of HL, the lymphocyte predominant (LR) subtype is the one most frequently associated with EBV, followed by the mixed cellularity (MC), nodular sclerosis (NS) and lymphocyte depletion (LD) subtypes. Our results also indicated the seldomly reported fact that EBV-positive cases in children were more numerous than those of adults with HL.