Osteoclasts + RA = ??

During class, one of the articles brought up the question of just what role osteoclasts have in RA. I spent quite some time searching for other supplementary reading that could provide an answer, but failed at finding any concrete information.

I did, however, come across a paper published in the journal, Rheumatology. In this research, a number of humoral and cellular factors that influence osteoclast formation from precursors in RA patients were analyzed and compared against controls. After the isolation, culturing, and analyzing of the specific osteoclasts had been completed, they found no difference between them and normal osteoclasts.

"...increased osteoclast functional activity rather than osteoclast formation is more likely to play a role in the generalized bone loss that occurs in RA, and that corticosteroids stimulate osteoclast formation and resorption", was the conclusion that was made by the team. Although this is not a very detailed finding, I still found it interesting because it applied to the comment in discussion.

Here is the rest of the paper :)

http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/11/1232.full