The clinical hallmarks of rheumatoid arthritis, a prevalent disease that affects 1% of the population, include polyarticular joint inflammation with leukocytic recruitment into synovial fluid and tissue, hyperplasia of the synovial joint lining, and development of synovial pannus that is erosive into cartilage and bone. Mechanistically, strong evidence implicates autoreactive lymphocytes and antibodies in disease pathogenesis, yet the effector mechanisms recruited to engender synovial inflammation remain obscure. From a cellular standpoint, the rheumatoid arthritis synovium is variably populated with numerous leukocytic lineages; lymphocytes, plasma cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and mast cells are all present. Furthermore, the inflammatory synovial fluid contains dramatically elevated numbers of leukocytes comprised predominantly of neutrophils (
1–
3). Functionally, although macrophages appear to provide a substantial source of proinflammatory cytokines, the contribution of other leukocyte populations to synovial inflammation remains largely speculative. In addition to cytokines, the leukotrienes are among the inflammatory mediators expressed in the inflamed joint. Indeed, previous analyses document marked elevation of both leukotriene B
4 (LTB
4) and the cysteinyl leukotrienes in diseased joints (
2,
4).
The murine K/BxN serum transfer model has provided insight into the pathogenic mechanisms contributing to the effector phase of autoimmune synovitis. Distal symmetric erosive polyarthritis in K/BxN transgenic mice proceeds from pathogenic autoantibodies generated from interaction between T and B lymphocytes via the MHC class II molecule A
g7. Autoimmune interactions in the adaptive immune system thus constitute proximal pathogenic events in disease development. The effector phases of this autoantibody-mediated arthritis, which can evolve in the absence of lymphocytes, can be induced by passive transfer of IgG containing serum to recipient mice (
5). Essential effector phase mechanisms elucidated thus far include the complement anaphylatoxin C5a, FcγRIII, TNF, and IL-1 receptor 1 (including by inference, IL-1; references
6 and
7). From a cellular standpoint, mast cells and neutrophils are essential, with an additional role for NK-T cells and down-modulating activity demonstrated for macrophages (
8–
12). These insights notwithstanding, the proinflammatory mediators contributed by these lineages remain elusive. Herein, we demonstrate a critical contribution of neutrophil-derived LTB
4 to arthritis induction and perpetuation in the K/BxN serum transfer model of inflammatory arthritis.