Autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), are caused by abnormal immune activation and inflammation, affecting 5% of the population. Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) refers to competitive growth advantage of a mutated bone marrow hematopoietic stem cell clone without diagnosis of an overt hematologic malignancy. CH is common in older individuals and is associated with shorter life expectancy as well as increased cardiovascular disease risk due to enhanced proinflammatory signaling. The convergent inflammatory phenotype warrants studies to understand the clinical connection between CH and autoimmunity. We hypothesize that CH is common in patients with autoimmune diseases and that CH is associated with higher inflammatory activity and severe clinical course in RA. The large-scale FINRISK and FinnGen studies and a multinational RA cohort will be used in this project. Understanding the mechanism of inflammation in autoimmunity can lead to novel therapeutic strategies.

2022

2026