Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease, and Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) regulates immune cell activation and function. Herein, we show that in our experiments 50% global deficiency of KLF2 significantly elevated arthritic inflammation and pathogenesis, osteoclastic differentiation, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and inflammatory cytokines in K/BxN serum-induced mice. The severities of RA pathogenesis, as well as the causative and resultant cellular and molecular factors, were further confirmed in monocyte-specific KLF2 deficient mice. In addition, induction of RA resulted in a decreased level of KLF2 in monocytes isolated from both mice and humans along with higher migration of activated monocytes to the RA sites in humans. Mechanistically, overexpression of KLF2 decreased the level of MMP9; conversely, knockdown of KLF2 increased MMP9 in monocytes along with enrichment of active histone marks and histone acetyltransferases on the MMP9 promoter region. These findings define the critical regulatory role of myeloid KLF2 in RA pathogenesis.
Keywords: KLF2; MMP9; conditional knockout mice; inflammation; monocytes; osteoclasts; rheumatoid arthritis.