Susceptibility of normal human joint tissue to viruses.

A model system has been developed to investigate the comparative ability of different viruses to replicate and persist intraarticularly. The viruses chosen for study were rubella, mumps, Coxsackie B4, adenovirus and varicella zoster, a selection of viruses with different degrees of association with joint symptoms in clinical studies. Our results showed that these viruses demonstrated a range of abilities to infect and persist in human joint tissue cultured in vitro. The most arthritogenic viruses, rubella, and to a lesser extent mumps, replicated and penetrated deeply into the synovial membrane. In contrast, the other 3 viruses were much less arthrotropic, and may only induce arthritis by immunopathological mechanisms.