Figure 4

Increased markers of bone metabolism in ankylosing spondylitis. Autoantibody reactivity and bone-turnover products were characterized on the IMPACT platform in 27 ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients and 25 healthy individuals. Cytokine levels in the same samples were measured using a bead-based assay run on the Luminex platform. Values were normalized as described in the methods. Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) followed by a hierarchical clustering algorithm were used for determination of cluster relations that group patient samples (top dendrogram) and antigen reactivities (right dendrogram) based on similarities in patient autoantibodies and cytokines (false discovery rate < 1). Dendrogram branch lengths and distances between nodes illustrate the extent of similarities in antigen reactivity and cytokine levels, with blue representing a decrease relative to the mean value obtained in samples from healthy individuals, yellow no change, and red an increase. Bone-turnover markers are in red text. GM-CSF, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor; IL, interleukin; PTH, parathyroid hormone; TNFα, tumor necrosis factor α.