Katja Lakota

Ljubljana University Medical Centre Slovenia

Katja Lakota, MPharm, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in Biomedicine from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2014. She is the head of the national research program, Systemic Autoimmune Diseases, at the Department of Rheumatology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia. As a Fulbright scholar, Dr. Lakota spent a research year in the laboratory of Prof. John Varga, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA, studying the role of adiponectin anti-fibrotic signaling in fibroblasts. She also investigated mechanisms leading to fibrosis development in systemic sclerosis during a post-doctoral fellowship from the Slovenian Research Agency in 2018. Dr. Lakota is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University of Primorska, Slovenia, where she teaches courses on systems biology in human diseases.

3chapters authored

Latest work with IntechOpen by Katja Lakota

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a multisystem autoimmune disease involving vasculopathy and immune activation that leads to the deposition of extracellular matrix and the development of fibrosis, resulting in cardinal clinical problems. Systemic Sclerosis - Recent Advances and New Perspectives provides a comprehensive overview of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and specific management of the clinical manifestations of SSc. The book addresses the current understanding of the causes and consequences of inflammatory activation, chromosomal instability, and activating factors. Special emphasis is placed on diagnosis, from the recognition of very early systemic sclerosis and consideration of its treatment to diagnostic methods for microvascular and pulmonary involvement. It also highlights the less life-threatening but very common manifestations of bone and skeletal muscle involvement, which affect patient quality of life.

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Systemic Sclerosis

Edited by Katja Lakota

Chapters authored

Acute Phase Proteins in Prototype Rheumatic Inflammatory Diseases

By Katja Lakota, Mojca Frank, Olivio Buzan, Matija Tomsic, Blaz Rozman and Snezna Sodin-Semrl

Part of the book: Acute Phase Proteins

Atherogenesis, Inflammation and Autoimmunity - An Overview

By Katja Lakota, Andrej Artenjak, Sasa Cucnik, Jana Brguljan-Hitij, Borut Cegovnik, Barbara Salobir, Rok Accetto, Borut Bozic, Blaz Rozman and Snezna Sodin-Semrl

Part of the book: Atherogenesis

Skeletal Muscle Involvement in Systemic Sclerosis

By Anja Srpčič, Felicita Urzi, Sanja Markez, Sergej Pirkmajer, Neža Brezovec, Katja Lakota and Katja Perdan Pirkmajer

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune connective tissue disease with great clinical and pathogenetic heterogeneity. Although skin is the most visible organ affected, skeletal muscles are affected in up to 96% of SSc patients and this is associated with a worse clinical outcome including increased mortality. Muscle involvement varies from patients experiencing myalgias, fibrosing myopathy to overlaps of SSc and myositis, a condition referred to as scleromyositis. In SSc muscle biopsies, muscular fibrosis, inflammation, microangiopathy and atrophy are observed, which is consistent with most prominent SSc pathophysiologic processes. The damage and fibrosis of the muscle tissue and the reduced ability of the body to build and repair muscle lead to a loss of muscle mass and strength. Studies show that patients with SSc have a higher prevalence of myopenia than the general population, but the exact cause is not yet fully understood. Partially, this phenomenon could be attributed to the disrupted activity of fibro-adipogenic progenitors, driven by alterations in the skeletal muscle microenvironment of SSc patients. These changes are also reflected in shifts in myokine secretion.

Part of the book: Systemic Sclerosis

Katja Lakota

Latest work with IntechOpen by Katja Lakota

Systemic Sclerosis

Chapters authored

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