Editorial: Synovial tissue: turning the page to precision medicine in arthritis?

Abstract

Copyright © 2021 Orr, Humby and Fonseca. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.It is with great pleasure that we present in this article collection, a timely overview of the rapidly developing field of synovial tissue analysis. Some of the most prominent protagonists in the field have contributed, and the collection walks the reader through everything from the history of the field’s development, to technical aspects of sampling, providing an update on the science and clinical applications, as well as discussing potential future perspectives. A broad consensus exists amongst clinicians and scientists, that a patient-centred, precision medicine approach holds the most promise to improve patient outcomes. The relevance of synovial biopsies in achieving this end is a major theme of this article collection. We are currently at an exciting juncture in this important field. This collection not only discusses the enormous potential of synovial tissue as a research and clinical tool, but also the many challenges in advancing its role in translational and clinical applications. Several key advancements concerning synovial biopsies over the last number of years have together contributed to the rheumatology community discussing in earnest how such sampling can contribute to precision medicine in arthritis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio