Synovial tissue has long been recognized as the target organ in inflammatory arthritis and as such has been extensively studied and evaluated to better understand disease pathogenesis. It is widely acknowledged that the synovial tissue has a heterogenous spectrum of inflammatory/immune cell infiltrate and this is paralleled by a similarly diverse expression of molecular markers. Although outcome for patients with early inflammatory arthritis has improved significantly considerable challenges remain including targeting intensive therapeutic regimens to those both most likely to respond and with the worse prognosis. Thus pathobiological heterogeneity has led to a search for tissue biomarkers of diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapy.

The proposed research topic therefore aims to address a number of the key current outstanding research questions regarding the role of synovial tissue in pathogenesis of inflammatory arthritis including the role of synovial pathobiology in diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapeutic intervention.

Keywords: synovial, histology, pathogenesis, inflammatory arthritis

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