[Rheumatoid arthritis in theory and practice. What do we expect from immunology?]

A short review is provided on the present state of knowledge concerning immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the implications of this knowledge for eventual future development of therapy. It is concluded that potential points for interference have been identified on the molecular level with increasing knowledge mainly on molecular aspects on T-cell activation, and that methods for interference can be schematically divided in "specific" and "unspecific". The greatest challenge for the future resides in development of "specific" therapies, and the prospects for the success of such an approach is discussed on the basis of our current knowledge on the structure of transplantation antigens which provide increased.