Smoking, citrullination and genetic variability in the immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis

• Published in: Seminars in immunology Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 92 - 98
• Main Authors: Klareskog, Lars, Malmström, Vivianne, Lundberg, Karin, Padyukov, Leonid, Alfredsson, Lars
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2011
• Subjects: Allergy and Immunology; Animals; Anti-CCP; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - immunology; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - metabolism; Autoimmunity; Citrullination; citrulline; Citrulline - metabolism; Environmental factors; Epidemiology; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Gene–environment interaction; HLA; Humans; Immune response; Immunopathogenesis; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Post-translation; Rheumatoid arthritis; Smoking; Smoking - adverse effects; Autoimmunity; Citrullination; Rheumatoid arthritis; Gene–environment interaction; HLA; Anti-CCP; Smoking
• ISSN: 1044-5323; 1096-3618; 1096-3618
• DOI: 10.1016/j.smim.2011.01.014

Abstract This review describes how studies on interactions between genetic variants, and environmental factors, mainly smoking, contribute to the understanding of how autoimmunity to post-translationally (citrullinated) proteins/peptides may occur and potentially contribute to certain subsets of rheumatoid arthritis. A main message is that studies on specific immune mechanisms in a complex and heterogeneous disease like RA should be undertaken with the help of results from genetic epidemiology. By those means, it may be possible to identify subsets of RA in a way that in the end allows development and testing of precise and subset-specific interventions against environment as well as genetically defined molecular pathways, in particular those that regulate specific immune responses.