Rubella Virus and Chronic Joint Disease: Is There an Association?

Synovial fluid samples and/or biopsies from 79 patients with various chronic inflammatory joint diseases or traumatic joint injury were tested for rubella virus (RV) in order to confirm or refute results from other studies that suggested RV as a cause of chronic inflammatory joint disease. Sixty-eight of the 72 patients tested had RV antibodies. RV RNA was detected by reverse transcription-PCR in the synovial fluid cells from two patients. RV was also isolated by cell culture from the synovial fluid of one of these two patients. This patient was a 42-year-old female with common variable immune deficiency and Mycoplasma hominis arthritis, while the other was a 68-year-old female with rheumatoid arthritis. While these results fail to confirm that RV is associated with chronic inflammatory joint disease, they suggest that RV may persist within a joint and be reactivated when cell-mediated immunity is suppressed.

本研究采集79名罹患各类慢性炎性关节病或创伤性关节损伤患者的滑液样本及/或活检组织，针对风疹病毒（rubella virus, RV）开展检测，以验证或驳斥此前部分研究提出的“风疹病毒为慢性炎性关节病致病诱因”这一结论。72名完成检测的患者中，有68名检出风疹病毒抗体。通过逆转录PCR（reverse transcription-PCR）技术，在2名患者的滑液细胞中检测到风疹病毒RNA。研究还通过细胞培养法，从上述2名患者中的1名的滑液样本中分离出风疹病毒。该名分离出病毒的患者为42岁女性，患有普通变异型免疫缺陷病（common variable immune deficiency）及人型支原体（Mycoplasma hominis）相关性关节炎；另一名患者为68岁女性类风湿关节炎（rheumatoid arthritis）患者。尽管本研究结果未能证实风疹病毒与慢性炎性关节病存在关联，但提示风疹病毒可在关节腔内持续存在，并在细胞介导免疫（cell-mediated immunity）受抑制时被重新激活。