A team at Beijing Union Medical College Hospital, CAMS, and BGI found that, compared to healthy people, oral and intestinal flora in rheumatoid arthritis patients have significant differences in redox conditions, iron, sulfur, zinc and arginine transport and metabolism as well as in rheumatoid arthritis-associated antigens, suggesting that the abnormal flora plays an important role in the pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis and may be directly involved in the disease.

China Bio news release, September 2, 2015