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What Your Blood Cells Could Tell Us About Rheumatoid Arthritis

Final report AC Scientific Summary
Final report AC lay summary

Chief Investigator

Dr Athena Chin

Flinders Medical Centre Department of Rheumatology

Award and Funder

Arthritis Australia National Research Program Scholarship (2025)

Funded by the Australian Rheumatology Association Trust

Plain Language Summary

Dr Athena Chin’s project, Clonal Haematopoiesis in Rheumatoid Arthritis, investigates how age-related changes in blood cells may influence inflammation, disease severity and long-term health outcomes for people living with rheumatoid arthritis.

Despite many advances in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis, some patients still do not respond to treatment, and disease activity has significant impact on quality of life. In addition, patients with rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to develop other medical conditions such as heart disease and cancers.

Dr Athena Chin research and explains how her study is exploring the link between clonal haematopoiesis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Clonal haematopoiesis (CH) is when your white blood cells develop “clones” due to genetic mutations that you acquire throughout your life. These clones have been observed to increase inflammation, as well as increase risk of heart disease and cancers.

This study is focused on investigating the relationship between CH and rheumatoid arthritis, and how it may impact our patients’ disease activity and outcomes including development of heart disease and/or cancers.

At current, how CH may impact rheumatoid arthritis patient outcomes is unknown. I am trying to see if the presence of CH might predict poorer outcomes for rheumatoid arthritis patients – for example, if it predicts refractory (harder to control) disease or increases the risk of heart disease and cancers.
Preliminary data has suggested the rates of CH is higher in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared to the general population. Based on our small group, when patients with rheumatoid arthritis also have CH, they may have increased risk of heart disease, as well as development of both organ and blood cancers.
With a larger study, Dr Chin hopes to support these findings, alongside assessing how CH may change (in size and type) over time in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. If factors are found that may predict the presence of CH in rheumatoid arthritis patients, then we will be able to monitor these patients more closely for development of comorbidities.
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