الفهرس 
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Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder
that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks flexible
joints. Although the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is unknown,
autoimmunity plays an important role in both its chronicity and
progression.
About 1% of the world’s population is affected by rheumatoid arthritis;
women are three times more often than men. Onset is most frequent
between the ages of 40 and 50 years.
Since tumor necrosis factor (TNF) as well as other cytokines act as key
players in the development of arthritis, we investigate new drugs for
treatment of arthritis, statins and vit. D, due to their anti-inflammatory
and immune-modulatory effects.
Some of the clinical benefits of statin therapy may be independent of their
cholesterol lowering effects. These so called pleiotropic effects are
believed to include anti-inflammatory actions and immunosuppressive
properties suggest a new face of statin therapy which makes them
important not only in the treatment of dyslipidemias but also in chronic
systemic inflammatory diseases.
Vit D also may have immune-modulatory effects due to suppression of
the development of autoimmunity in some experimental animal models.