Rheumatoid arthritis causes

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Manpreet Kaur, MD [2]

Overview

Rheumatoid arthritis is usually idiopathic but genetic factors like HLA-DR4 cluster, environmental like smoking, hormonal like hyperprolactinemia, immunologic, infectious factors like mycoplasma, epstein-Barr virus (EBV), rubella virus, porphyromonas gingivalis, socioeconomic, psychological, and lifestyle factors such as obesity also play an important role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

Causes

The cause of rheumatoid arthritis is idiopathic but genetic, environmental, hormonal, immunologic, infectious factors, socioeconomic, psychological, and lifestyle factors also play an important role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

Common causes of rheumatoid arthritis include:

Genetic factors:^[1]
- In United States, HLA-DR4 cluster (HLA-DR beta 0401, 0404, or 0405,) part of one of the peptide-binding sites of certain HLA-DR molecules associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
- In European countries, HLA-DR1 (HLA-DR beta 0101) is associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
Infectious agents:
- Various infectious agents involved in rheumatoid arthritis include:^[2]^[3]

Less common causes of rheumatoid arthritis include:

References

↑ Barton A, Worthington J (October 2009). “Genetic susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis: an emerging picture”. Arthritis Rheum. 61 (10): 1441–6. doi:10.1002/art.24672. PMID 19790122.
↑ Hitchon CA, Chandad F, Ferucci ED, Willemze A, Ioan-Facsinay A, van der Woude D, Markland J, Robinson D, Elias B, Newkirk M, Toes RM, Huizinga TW, El-Gabalawy HS (June 2010). “Antibodies to porphyromonas gingivalis are associated with anticitrullinated protein antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and their relatives”. J. Rheumatol. 37 (6): 1105–12. doi:10.3899/jrheum.091323. PMID 20436074.
↑ Routsias JG, Goules JD, Goules A, Charalampakis G, Pikazis D (July 2011). “Autopathogenic correlation of periodontitis and rheumatoid arthritis”. Rheumatology (Oxford). 50 (7): 1189–93. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ker090. PMID 21343168.
↑ Barrett JH, Brennan P, Fiddler M, Silman AJ (June 1999). “Does rheumatoid arthritis remit during pregnancy and relapse postpartum? Results from a nationwide study in the United Kingdom performed prospectively from late pregnancy”. Arthritis Rheum. 42 (6): 1219–27. doi:10.1002/1529-0131(199906)42:6<1219::AID-ANR19>3.0.CO;2-G. PMID 10366115.

Overview