About the Project
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, destructive autoimmune disease that targets joints and other organs. CD4 T cells are known to play a key role in the pathogenesis of RA. Yet, how arthritis-causing T cells contribute to disease is not understood since it is difficult to differentiate T cells that have been activated by the inflammatory milieu in the arthritic joint from those activated through their TCR by autoantigens. Here we propose to take a hypothesis driven approach to studying the antigen-activated CD4 T cells in RA synovial tissue. Additionally, we propose to investigate more broadly all the immune and nonimmune cells present in RA synovial tissue. This will advance our ability to characterize tissue resident cells and infiltrating immune cells expanded in the RA synovium with the ultimate goal to deliver more targeted therapeutics.
