Arthritis provoked by linked T and B cell recognition of a glycolytic enzyme

I Matsumoto, A Staub, C Benoist, D Mathis - Science, 1999 - science.org
I Matsumoto, A Staub, C Benoist, D Mathis
Science, 1999science.org
The hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is specific destruction of the synovial joints. In a
mouse line that spontaneously develops a disorder with many of the features of human RA,
disease is initiated by T cell recognition of a ubiquitously expressed self-antigen; once
initiated, pathology is driven almost entirely by immunoglobulins. In this study, the target of
both the initiating T cells and pathogenic immunoglobulins was identified as glucose-6-
phosphate isomerase, a glycolytic enzyme. Thus, some forms of RA or related arthritides …
The hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is specific destruction of the synovial joints. In a mouse line that spontaneously develops a disorder with many of the features of human RA, disease is initiated by T cell recognition of a ubiquitously expressed self-antigen; once initiated, pathology is driven almost entirely by immunoglobulins. In this study, the target of both the initiating T cells and pathogenic immunoglobulins was identified as glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, a glycolytic enzyme. Thus, some forms of RA or related arthritides may develop by a mechanism fundamentally different from the currently popular paradigm of a joint-specific T cell response.
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