Do synovial biopsies help to support evidence for involvement of innate immunity in the immunopathology of Beh？ets disease.docVIP

Available online /content/11/2/109 Editorial Do synovial biopsies help to support evidence for involvement of innate immunity in the immunopathology of Beh?et’s disease? Jan AM van Laar, Jasper H Kappen, Paul LA van Daele and P Martin van Hagen Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Clinical Immunology Department of Immunology, Erasmus University Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands Corresponding author: Jan AM van Laar, j.vanlaar@erasmusmc.nl Published: 30 April 2009 Arthritis Research Therapy 2009, 11:109 (doi:10.1186/ar2657) This article is online at /content/11/2/109 ? 2009 BioMed Central Ltd See related research article by Ca?ete et al., /content/11/1/R17 Abstract in close contact with the outside environment (skin and mucosa); the presence of hypersensitive T cells; Toll-like Beh?et’s disease is a complex vasculitis of unknown etiology. Abundant neutrophils suggest the involvement of innate immunity. Cytokines are skewed to the T-helper-1 pattern. Few sterile organs are easily accessible for analysis in Beh?et’s disease. Ca?ete and coworkers identify inflamed joints as a feasible model and suggest the involvement of innate immunity in Beh?et’s disease. receptor expression in affected cells; and hyperactive neutrophilic and CD8+ T-cell responses to heat shock proteins or bacterial cell wall fragments [2,4]. Cytokines that are involved in BD are largely pro-inflammatory (IL-1β, IL-8, IL- 10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ). Peripheral T cells in BD patients predominantly exhibit a Th1-type pattern of cytokine In a recent issue of Arthritis Research and Therapy, Ca?ete and coworkers [1] describe a model for studying the immuno- pathology of Beh?et’s disease (BD) by analyzing inflammatory cells, tissue, and cytokines in inflamed joints from BD patients. The etiology of BD is obscure but it is considered to be a complex