Harvinder S. Luthra, M.D.

I have been interested in clinical and therapeutic studies in Rheumatoid Arthritis, Relapsing Polychondritis and Retroperitoneal Fibrosis.

I have been involved in studies in collaboration with Dr. Chella David and in developing and studying animal models of rheumatic diseases focusing upon various aspects of the role of MHC genes, using inbred, congenic, transgenic and knock-out mice.

Animal models we have developed include Collagen-induced arthritis in Human MHC Transgenic mice, HLA-B27 ? 2 knock-out transgenic mice, who develop spontaneous arthritis and nail changes as a model to study spondyloarthropathies, and HLA-DR2 and HLA-DR3 transgenic animals to study their role in the immune response in SLE.