Towards adoptive cellular therapy of chronic autoimmune arthritis

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a relatively common disease that is characterized by chronic inflammation of joints. The research as described in this thesis focused on the question of whether adoptive cellular therapy is effective in a mouse model of RA. The most generally known type of adoptive cellular therapy is, probably, bone marrow transplantation (BMT), i.e. BM cells from a healthy donor are transplanted to the patient. Especially, hematological disorders like leukemia are treated with BMT; however, the research presented in this thesis strongly suggests that BMT may also effectively treat diseases, such as RA, in the (near) future. The efficacy of other types of adoptive cellular therapies was also investigated, including the transfer of regulatory T cells. Most strikingly, the disappearance of autoaggressive immune cells was associated with the efficacy of the treatment. These results suggest that these immune cells that, directly or indirectly, cause damage to the patient___s joints were eliminated and/or were kept quiescent. These studies are of importance for the future improvement of the treatment of rheumatic diseases like RA.