Adhesion of rheumatoid peripheral blood and synovial fluid mononuclear cells to high endothelial venules of gut mucosa.

Mononuclear cells isolated from paired blood and synovial fluid of seven patients with rheumatoid arthritis showed cytoadherence to porcine Peyer's patch high endothelial venules using the Stamper-Woodruff method. A significantly greater proportion of binding was found among the synovial fluid lymphocytes. These would appear to be a population of cells that share adherence characteristics with cells known to be of gut mucosal origin, suggesting that in rheumatoid arthritis some lymphocytes derived from mucosa migrate to joints.