Patients
Two ACPA+ and two ACPA- RA patients from Peking University Third
Hospital who fulfilled the 2010 European League Against
Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for
RA(2) were enrolled in the study. All 4 patients were newly diagnosed,
treatment naive, menopausal, and non-smoker women from the northern Han
population with symptom duration of less than 6 months, and none had any
other chronic diseases. Three matched healthy individuals were included
in the study.
PBMC collected from 40 ACPA+, 40 ACPA- RA patients, and 40 healthy
controls were applied for quantitative PCR to validate candidate genes
expression. Serum CXCL2 levels were detected by ELISA in a cohort
consisted of 70 ACPA+, 37 ACPA- RA patients, and 40 healthy controls.
The clinical and laboratory data of the patients were collected from
electronic medical records. In all comparisons mentioned, the groups
were age and sex matched. The present study was conducted in accordance
with the Declaration of Helsinki. The Ethics Committee of Peking
University Third Hospital approved the study. All procedures involving
specimens obtained from humans were performed with informed consent from
each patient.