Review

Association of MHC and rheumatoid arthritis: HLA-DR4 and rheumatoid arthritis - studies in mice and men

Lars Fugger 1 and Arne Svejgaard2

Author Affiliations

1 Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby Sygehus, Denmark

2 Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark

For all author emails, please log on.

Arthritis Res 2000, 2:208-211 doi:10.1186/ar89

Published: 25 April 2000

Abstract

Inherited susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with the DRB1 genes encoding the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR4 and HLA-DR1 molecules. Transgenic mice expressing these major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules have been developed to generate humanized models for RA. The relevance of these models for understanding RA will be discussed.

Keywords:
human leukocyte antigen; rheumatoid arthritis; transgenic mice