Mieczyslaw Gajda

In this paper we show that FLSs isolated from knee joints of mice with AIA have the capacity to cause severe inflammation and destruction when injected intraarticularly into knee joints of SCID mice. Isolated FLSs express their arthritogenic potential even after several passages in vitro, indicating a long-lasting transformation to autonomous aggressor cells. This arthritogenicity was intrinsic to FLSs, since removal of contaminating macrophages did not affect arthritis severity in the recipients.