Pro-inflammatory cytokines and bone morphogenetic proteins are generally studied separately and considered to be elements of different worlds, immunology and developmental biology. Varas and colleagues report that these factors show cross-talk in rheumatoid arthritis synoviocytes. They show that pro-inflammatory cytokines not only stimulate the production of bone morphogenetic proteins but that these endogenously produced bone morphogenetic proteins interfere with the effects of pro-inflammatory cytokines on synoviocytes.