CD4 and rheumatoid arthritis: The hypothesis underlying this study is based on a study by Evans et al17 which showed that CD14+ monocytes from synovial fluid or synovial membrane from patients with RA were capable of skewing the phenotype of CD4+ T cells, by causing them to produce increased amounts of interleukin‐17 (IL‐17) and interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) as compared with CD4+ T cells cultured with peripheral blood monocytes.