Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Rheumatoid Arthritis, including details on treatment, symptoms, causes, medication.

Mycoplasma fermentans glycolipid-antigen as a pathogen of rheumatoid arthritis.

Kawahito Y, Ichinose S, Sano H, Tsubouchi Y, Kohno M, Yoshikawa T, Tokunaga D, Hojo T, Harasawa R, Nakano T, Matsuda K

Inflammation and Immunology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-ku, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 602-0841, Japan.

Mycoplasma fermentans has been suspected as one of the causative pathogenic microorganisms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) however, the pathogenic mechanism is still unclear. We, previously, reported that glycolipid-antigens (GGPL-I and III) are the major antigens of M. fermentans. Monoclonal antibody against the GGPL-III could detect the existence of the GGPL-III antigens in synovial tissues from RA patients. GGPL-III antigens were detected in 38.1% (32/84) of RA patient's tissues, but not in osteoarthritis (OA) and normal synovial tissues. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that a part of GGPL-III antigens are located at endoplasmic reticulum. GGPL-III significantly induced TNF-alpha and IL-6 production from peripheral blood mononulear cells, and also proliferation of synovial fibroblasts. Further study is necessary to prove that M. fermentans is a causative microorganism of RA; however, the new mechanisms of disease pathogenesis provides hope for the development of effective and safe immunotherapeutic strategies based on the lipid-antigen, GGPL-III, in the near future.

Published 25 March 2008 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 369(2): 561-6.
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