The use of the air pouch to study experimental synovitis and cartilage breakdown.

This mini-review outlines the development and application of the air pouch model during the past five years. It shows the importance of using the appropriate aged pouch to establish long-lasting chronic inflammation following immune and non-immune stimuli. Subsequently, the effects of different inflammatory environments were studied on implanted cartilage. It has been found that the inflammation used to date did not lead to an appreciable increase in the rate of cartilage degradation. This is discussed with the implications for new trends in therapeutic research applied to rheumatology.