Artificial rheumatic pannus tissues and diagnostic method for detecting rheumatoid arthritis

摘要

The invention concerns rheumatic pannus tissue which forms pannus-type villi and preferably contains class II HLA positive macrophage-type cells and vimentin-producing fibroblast-type cells. The invention also concerns a process for preparing rheumatic pannus tissue, and the use of rheumatic pannus tissue for discovering pharmacologically effective substances. The invention further concerns a method and diagnostic procedure for the in vitro diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, which method is characterized in that the absence of or reduction in the number of CD21 on B-cells in the synovial fluid is detected.