p53 as anti-rheumatoid arthritis factor

Genome Biology | Full text | DNA-damage signaling and apoptosis: " Role for p53 as an anti-rheumatoid-arthritis factor, which suggests that it might perform a similar role in other hyper-proliferative diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when hyperplastic tissue invades and destroys joints. Reactive oxygen species, released at joints as a result of inflammatory damage, should normally result in p53-dependent apoptosis of synoviocytes (joint cells). Cells from the joints of rheumatoid arthritis patients have mutations in p53, however, suggesting a requirement for p53 in the efficient removal of hyperplastic tissue. Crucially, in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis, absence of p53 results in worse arthritis."