New methods for the treatment of inflammatory diseases

A pharmaceutical composition comprising an antagonist of BSSL and a carrier or excipient for use in the prevention, prophylaxis and / or treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, wherein the antagonist BSSL is (i) an antibody or a fragment antibody that specifically binds to human BSSL, or (ii) a molecule or an antisense RNAi polynucleotide comprising a sequence complementary to a portion of a polynucleotide sequence for human BSSL coding or a sequence complementary thereto.