Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) are essential cellular components in inflammatory joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Despite the growing use of FLS isolated from OA and RA patients, a detailed functional and parallel comparison of FLS from these two types of arthritis has not been performed.
In the present study, FLS were isolated from surgically removed synovial tissues from twenty-two patients with OA and RA to evaluate their basic cellular functions.
Pure populations of FLS were isolated by a sorting strategy based on stringent marker expression (CD45
The parallel comparison of OA FLS and RA FLS lays a foundation in preparation for when FLS are considered a potential therapeutic anti-inflammatory target for OA and RA.