Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Autoimmunity

Lungs and citrullination

Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies are a distinctive feature of a subset of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A new report investigates how lung inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects protein citrullination, providing an additional piece of information on the potential link between airway inflammation and RA.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Inflammation-associated protein citrullination might contribute to systemic autoimmunity.

References

  1. Rantapaa-Dahlqvist, S. et al. Antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide and IgA rheumatoid factor predict the development of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 48, 2741–2749 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Amara, K. et al. Monoclonal IgG antibodies generated from joint-derived B cells of RA patients have a strong bias toward citrullinated autoantigen recognition. J. Exp. Med. 210, 445–455 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Harre, U. et al. Induction of osteoclastogenesis and bone loss by human autoantibodies against citrullinated vimentin. J. Clin. Invest. 122, 1791–1802 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lugli, E. B. et al. Expression of citrulline and homocitrulline residues in the lungs of non-smokers and smokers: implications for autoimmunity in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Res. Ther. 17, 9 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Makrygiannakis, D. et al. Smoking increases peptidylarginine deiminase 2 enzyme expression in human lungs and increases citrullination in BAL cells. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 67, 1488–1492 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Reynisdottir, G. et al. Structural lung changes and local anti-citrulline immunity are early features of anti citrullinated-proteins antibodies positive rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 66, 31–39 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ytterberg, A. J. et al. Shared immunological targets in the lungs and joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: identification and validation. Ann. Rheum. Dis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204912.

  8. Makrygiannakis, D. et al. Citrullination is an inflammation-dependent process. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 65, 1219–1222 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Karlson, E. W. et al. Gene-environment interaction between HLA-DRB1 shared epitope and heavy cigarette smoking in predicting incident rheumatoid arthritis. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 69, 54–60 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Demoruelle, M. K. et al. Brief report: airways abnormalities and rheumatoid arthritis-related autoantibodies in subjects without arthritis: early injury or initiating site of autoimmunity? Arthritis Rheum. 64, 1756–1761 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lars Klareskog.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Klareskog, L., Catrina, A. Lungs and citrullination. Nat Rev Rheumatol 11, 261–262 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2015.38

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2015.38

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing