类风湿性关节炎严重影响患者的健康和生活质量。淋巴系统在关节炎症的发生和发展发过程中有不可忽视的重要作用。传统中医药治疗类风湿性关节炎已取得较好疗效，但机制尚不明确。研究传统中医药促进淋巴管形成和成熟对类风湿性关节炎的影响，对治疗类风湿性关节炎具有重要的临床、社会和经济意义。本合作研究项目是在项目组承担的国家自然科学基金重点项目研究基础上的延伸。选用转基因关节炎小鼠模型为研究对象，采用体内成像技术、细胞生物学、分子生物学等研究方法，研究类风湿性关节炎和淋巴功能改变的细胞学机制以及芪独去痹汤调控VEGF-C/VEGFR3 信号转导通路的影响淋巴管内皮肌细胞增殖、凋亡、迁移、成管，促进淋巴管回流功能，改善关节炎症的分子机制。

Rheumatoid arthritis(RA) is a common kind of joint disease characteristed swelling, pain, physical disability which impaired quality of life. Lymphatic drainage plays an important role in arthritic development, while Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) could effectively alleviate the symptom of RA, but the mechanism is not clear yet. The regulation of the effect of TCM on the lymphopoiesis and lymphatic maturation contributing to RA provides a novel direction for the research on the mechanism of TCM and has important clinical, social and economic significance for the treatment of RA. This project is an extension of the National Natural Science Fund for Young Scholars. We will perform research on gene transgenic RA mouse model. Under the assistance of lymphatic imaging system, cellular biology, molecular biology method and clinical trail evaluation, we will study the cellular mechanism of impaired lymphatic draining function in RA, and the molecular mechanism of the regulation effect of Qi-Du-Qu-Bi-Tang on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, tube formation of lymphatic endothelial cells to promote lymphatic drainage and improve RA, through VEGF-C/VEGFR3 signal pathway.