In this study, we discovered significantly increased expression levels of autophagy-related proteins (beclin1, Atg5, and LC3) in the synovial tissue of patients with active RA which indicated that the autophagy pathways within RASFs and other inflammatory cells were significantly activated in the synovial tissue of patients with active RA as compared to that in OA patients. Here, BECN1 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.