successful in vitro culture of rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue explants and its usefulness as a analysis tool

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K20023
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Orthopaedic surgery
• Research Institution: National Hospital Organization, Kyushu Medical Center (Clinical Institute)
• Principal Investigator: SAKURABA Koji 独立行政法人国立病院機構九州医療センター(臨床研究センター), その他部局等, その他 (00747579)
• Research Collaborator: YAMADA Hisakata ; IWAMOTO Yukihide ; NAKASHIMA Yasuharu ; MIYAHARA Hisaaki ; YOSHIKAI Yasunobu ; ESAKI Yukio ; FUKUSHI Jun-ichi ; OISHI Masanobu ; OYAMADA Akiko ; FUJIMURA Kenjiro ; KAI Kazuhiro ; SPOLSKI Rosanne ; LEONARD Warren J.
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 関節リウマチ / 滑膜組織培養 / in vitro培養 / 滑膜炎維持 / IL-6産生維持 / IL-8産生維持

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The pathogenesis of chronic and multiple synovitis in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is unclear until now. To investigate this question, many physicians had examined some arthritis mice models or cell analyses from RA patients. However, these models may not refract the actual pathological condition of RA synovium. Therefore, we developed the method of culturing RA synovial explants as it is. To culture the explants in vitro, we employed the air-liquid interface (ALI) which put it on the interface between gas phase and liquid phase. In the histopathological analysis, ALI culture kept the construction of inflamed synovium long time. Production of the inflammatory cytokine Interleukin(IL)-6 and IL-8 were also maintained in ALI culture at a later time, but decreased when anti-TNF-a antibodies were added into this culture medium. Thus, it was suggested that ALI culture of RA synovial explants was useful not only to study the pathogenesis of RA synovium but also to check the effect of new DMARDs.

Free Research Field

臨床免疫学、リウマチ病学