Common Aspects of Human and Primate Seronegative Arthritis
KIMME L. HYRICH, TAE-HWAN KIM, URSULA PAYNE, XIANG ZHANG, BASIL CHIU, KAY MEHREN,
and ROBERT D. INMAN
ABSTRACT.
A 27-year-old female lowland gorilla developed an asymmetric oligoarthritis 3 months post-partum. There was no evidence of an antecedent gastrointestinal or genitourinary infection. Serum was negative for rheumatoid factor and antinuclear antibody. Synovial fluid revealed 2000 white blood cells with negative cultures and polarized microscopy. Studies on synoviocytes were the following: (1) FACS analysis revealed surface expression of a B27-like epitope of the cells. (2) Analysis of intracellular clearance kinetics of arthritogenic organisms showed peak intracellular colony-forming units at 48 hours after bacterial invasion, and clearance by 13 days post-invasion. (3) Interferon-g (0.1–10.0 ng/ml) accelerated intracellular microbicidal pathways in a dose-dependent fashion. These findings closely parallel those seen in human synoviocytes of patients with spondyloarthropathy. Primate and human seronegative arthritis share clinical and immunologic features, as well as aspects of host:pathogen defense mechanisms. The interplay of genetic and microbial factors underlying this arthritis appears to be conserved across these species boundaries. (J Rheumatol 2004;31:2300-4)
Key Indexing Terms:
ARTHRITIS
GORILLA
BACTERIA
PRIMATE
From the Division of Rheumatology, Toronto Western Hospital, and Toronto Western Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; The Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea; and The Toronto Zoo, Toronto, Canada.
K.L. Hylich, MD, Clinical Fellow; T-H. Kim, MD, PhD, Research Fellow, Toronto Western Hospital, Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Hanyang University; U. Payne, BSc, Research Associate; X. Zhang, MD, PhD, Research Fellow; B. Chiu, PhD, Research Associate, Toronto Western Hospital; K. Mehren, BVSc, DVM, Staff, Toronto Zoo; R.D. Inman, MD, Professor of Medicine and Immunology, University of Toronto.
Address reprint requests to Dr. R.D. Inman, Arthritis Centre of Excellence, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2S8. E-mail: robert.inman@uhn.on.ca
Submitted December 22, 2003; revision accepted May 31, 2004.
