Figure 2

Ratio between shared and total TCR-β chains specific for huCollp263–271 discriminates RA patients from controls. (a) Average plus SD of the number of total (open bars) or shared (grey bars) TCR-β chains specific for huCollp263–271 in PBMCs of patients with early RA and control DR4⁺ individuals. PBMCs from patients and control individuals were prepared as described in the Materials and methods section and cultured at 5 × 10⁶ cells/ml in the presence or absence of 20 μg/ml huCollp263–271. Three days later, cells were harvested and modified CDR3 β-chain spectratyping for the rearrangements listed in Tables 3 and 4 was performed, as described in the Materials and methods section. (b) Average plus SD of the ratio between shared and total TCR-β chains specific for huCollp263–271 in PBMCs of patients with early RA and control DR4⁺ individuals. Individual data are reported in the insert, in which the linear regression between total (x-axis) and shared (y-axis) TCR-β chains is shown for patients with early RA (circles) and control DR4⁺ individuals (triangles). huCollp261–273, human collagen peptide 261–273; PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; SD, standard deviation; TCR, T-cell receptor.