ArticleArthritis research & therapy2006
Fibroblast activation protein is expressed by rheumatoid myofibroblast-like synoviocytes.
Article in Arthritis research & therapy, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 233 citations in OpenAlex.
- Head-to-head comparative study of [Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
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- Fibroblast Activation Protein Inhibitor (FAPI) PET: A Scoping Review of Emerging Oncologic and Fibroinflammatory Applications.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Comparative analysis ofEuropean journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2026Article
- Targeting the synovial engine: next-generation engineered immune cells to eradicate pathogenic FLS in rheumatoid arthritis, with safety-first, selective designs.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Targeting Fibrosis in Arthritis Using mRNA Vaccine-Based Approach.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Benign and malignant uptake in the postoperative diagnosis of gastrointestinal tumors: a comparative study ofQuantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- Production and Quality Control of [Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Fibroblast activation protein targeting radiopharmaceuticals: From drug design to clinical translation.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2025Review
- Article
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- CD11b Blockade Ameliorates Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury by Reducing Neutrophil and Monocyte Infiltration.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Molecular imaging of psoriatic arthritis.Current opinion in rheumatology · 2025Review
- Comparisons of [Clinical rheumatology · 2025Article
- Fibroblast activation protein-α is a potential prognostic biomarker related to ferroptosis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025Article
- ER O-glycosylation in synovial fibroblasts drives cartilage degradation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- miR-548aj-3p and miR-3127-3p suppress RANKL-facilitated inflammatory cytokines and catabolic factor in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Commentary: Targeting fibroblast activation protein in rheumatoid arthritis: from molecular imaging to precision therapeutics.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Targeting fibroblast activation protein in rheumatoid arthritis: from molecular imaging to precision therapeutics.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fibroblast activation protein (FAP), as described so far, is a type II cell surface serine protease expressed by fibroblastic cells in areas of active tissue remodelling such as tumour stroma or healing wounds. We investigated the expression of FAP by fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) and compared the synovial expression pattern in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Synovial tissue from diseased joints of 20 patients, 10 patients with refractory RA and 10 patients with end-stage OA, was collected during routine surgery. As a result, FLSs from intensively inflamed synovial tissues of refractory RA expressed FAP at high density. Moreover, FAP expression was co-localised with matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-1 and MMP-13) and CD44 splice variants v3 and v7/8 known to play a major role in the concert of extracellular matrix degradation. The pattern of signals appeared to constitute a characteristic feature of FLSs involved in rheumatoid arthritic joint-destructive processes. These FAP-expressing FLSs with a phenotype of smooth muscle actin-positive myofibroblasts were located in the lining layer of the synovium and differ distinctly from Thy-1-expressing and non-proliferating fibroblasts of the articular matrix. The intensity of FAP-specific staining in synovial tissue from patients with RA was found to be different when compared with end-stage OA. Because expression of FAP by RA FLSs has not been described before, the findings of this study highlight a novel element in cartilage and bone destruction of arthritic joints. Moreover, the specific expression pattern qualifies FAP as a therapeutic target for inhibiting the destructive potential of fibroblast-like synovial cells.
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