Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a kind of systematic refractory autoimmune disease and is pathologically featured by proliferation of synovial cells, thickening of the lining layer, infiltration of multiple inflammatory cells, formation of pannus, etc. These pathological changes are a result of multiple factors. In recent years, many studies on the occurrence mechanism of RA have been performed, which mainly focused on the synovial hyperplasia, inflammatory factor, gene regulation, etc. This article focuses on the research progress of synovial cell metabolism in RA, with the aim of providing new model and new target for the treatment of RA.