Synovial lymphocytes indicate "bacterial" agents may cause some cases of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate synovial lymphocyte response data from "rheumatoid" patients, to determine if "bacterial" antigens caused significant stimulation.

METHODS

Two-tailed t tests, analysis of variance, and metaanalysis were applied to 3H-thymidine uptake triplicate/quadruplicate counts, resulting from microbiological antigen stimulation of synovial fluid lymphocytes.

RESULTS

In 5 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, maximal synovial lymphocyte responses to chlamydial (in 3) and salmonella (in 2) antigens were significantly greater than to other tested antigens.

CONCLUSION

The data, associated with other published data from similar studies, suggest that Chlamydia and pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae may be etiologically related to the arthritis of some patients with rheumatoid arthritis.