Number of individual ACPA reactivities in synovial fluid immune complexes, but not serum anti-CCP2 levels, associate with inflammation and joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis

摘要

Introduction Individual patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) show divergent specific anti-citrullinated protein/peptide antibodies (ACPA) patterns, but hitherto no individual ACPA specificity has consistently been linked to RA pathogenesis. ACPA are also implicated in immune complexes (IC)-associated joint pathology, but until now, there has been no method to investigate the role of individual ACPA in RA IC formation and IC-associated pathogenesis.