Acquisition of the rheumatoid arthritis HLA shared epitope through microchimerism
Yan Z, Aydelotte T, Gadi VK et al.
Arthritis Rheum 2011;63:640–4.
This study reported that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who were genotypically negative for the shared epitope (SE) could acquire the SE through microchimerism via fetal–maternal cell exchange, suggesting that SE-encoding microchimerism could contribute to the RA risk.