Medicina Fluminensis, Vol. 48 No. 4, 2012.
Review article
The pathogenic mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis
Jagoda Ravlić-Gulan
; Katedra za fiziologiju, imunologiju i patofiziologiju, Medicinski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Srđan Novak
; Klinika za internu medicinu, KBC Rijeka, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Gordan Gulan
; Klinika za ortopediju Lovran, Lovran, Hrvatska
Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common and most severe autoimmune and chronic inflammatory disease leading to irreversible joint damage and systemic disorders of other organs that causes severe functional disability and higher rates of mortality. Many pathogenetic mechanisms involved in the induction and maintenance of rheumatoid arthritis are described, however, the etiology of the disease is not yet known. Interaction of genetic and environmental factors causes the loss of immune tolerance leading to autoimmune responses to self antigens, development of arthritis and systemic disorders. The identification of the early pathogenetic mechanisms and complex cellular interactions in the synovial membrane would provide conditions for finding a good and highly specific biomarkers for an early diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic response, and thus for an individualized approach to treatment of RA patients, which would be based on direct blocking of the key pathogenetic mechanism of the disease and the induction of tolerance, rather than suppression of the immune responses.
Keywords
joint destruction; pathogenesis; rheumatoid arthritis
Hrčak ID:
95726
URI
Publication date:
3.12.2012.
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