The present study was undertaken to validate whether TNF-α and calreticulin (CRT) serve as dual signaling to activate nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-, leucine-rich repeat- and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) and HUVECs.
We identified a synovial B cell-derived RA-rmAb locally differentiated within the ELS<sup>+</sup> RA synovium reacting toward CRT, a putative novel autoantigen recently described in RA patients, suggesting that FLS-derived CRT may contribute to fuel the local autoimmune response.
Synovial tissue and fibroblast-like synoviocytes from RA patients were found to express a higher abundance of citrullinated CRT than samples from osteoarthritis patients.