Monoclonal anti-CD8 therapy induces disease amelioration in the K/BxN mouse model of spontaneous chronic polyarthritis.

Objective: CD8+ T cells are part of the T cell pool infiltrating the synovium in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, their role in the pathogenesis of RA has not been fully delineated. Using the K/BxN mouse model of spontaneous chronic arthritis, which shares many similarities with RA, we studied the potential of CD8+ T cell depletion with monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to stop and reverse the progression of experimental arthritis.