Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), is the most common, chronic rheumatic disease of childhood, affecting approximately one per 1,000 children. JIA is an autoimmune, noninfective, inflammatory joint disease. It is characterised by chronic joint inflammation and arthritis persisting for at least 6 weeks.
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is thought to arise from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Its signs and symptoms result from excessive inflammation in and around the joints. Immunological studies have shown that systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis is an acquired autoinflammatory disease, and have led to successful studies of both interleukin-1 and interleukin-6 blockade. In other forms of the disease, synovial inflammation is the consequence of a disturbed balance between proinflammatory effector cells (such as T-helper-17 cells), and anti-inflammatory regulatory cells (such as FOXP3-positive regulatory T cells). Moreover, specific soluble biomarkers (S100 proteins) can guide individual treatment.
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