| Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic articular disease accompanied by an inflammation of the joints resulting in painful stifness and swelling. The aetiology and course of RA is connected with considerable changes in the phenotype and the cellular composition of the inflamed articular tissue. These changes have important consequences on the composition of gene products, the so-called proteins, that play an essential role as functional and/or immunogenic components in various biological and immunological processes. Changes in the protein composition are thought to be responsible for chronic inflammation and joint destruction. Knowledge of the changed protein composition will provide insight into the pathophysiological processes underlying the aetiology and course of the disease. Recently, a method has been developed in analogy with the cDNA microarray technology that enables determination of the expression profile of a high number of proteins simultaneously. The measurements may be done in lysates of cells and tissues and body fluids like plasma/serum, urine and synovial fluid. As an onset to the assessment of the protein expression profile in RA the cDNA microarray technology has been applied, due to which it has been possible to analyse in RA articular tissue the mRNA expression profile of tens of thousands of genes simultaneously. A logical continuation of this study is the analysis of the protein expression profiles of the candidate genes that have resulted from the cDNA microarray study. Aim of this project is to apply the protein microarray technology to assess RA-specific protein expression profiles in body fluid and tissue of RA patients. These results will generate knowledge on disease-specific processes; this is of importance for defining new targets for therapeutic intervention and the improvement of diagnostic and prognostic determinations. |
