The pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis

The main focus of the chronic inflammatory response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the synovium. Even though we do not know what causes this debilitating disease, characterisation of the infiltrating inflammatory cells and their products is of major importance in understanding the pathogenesis. In this short review we will highlight the main cell populations and their products (cytokines) in RA synovium which may be candidate targets for therapy.