Figure 2

Spontaneous in vitro apoptosis of monocytes correlates with change in disease activity after 12 weeks. (A-C) Spontaneous apoptosis of monocytes from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients was measured at baseline and the change in disease activity score (DAS)28, C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) levels from baseline and to week 12 after starting treatment with etanercept for these patients was calculated. Dot plots depict the rate of spontaneous in vitro apoptosis (SIA) in relation to the change (Δ) in DAS28 (A), CRP (B) and ESR (C) (n = 20). Regression coefficient and level of significance for the linear regression are as indicated. (D) Processing of DAS28 during the study was analyzed in the patient cohorts with high and low spontaneous monocyte apoptosis respectively. Change in DAS28 was calculated for the treatment time points 4, 8 12, 16 and 24 weeks. Depicted are median and standard error of the mean of numeric improvement in DAS28 (ΔDAS28) in the patient group with high (solid squares) and low (solid circles) rates of spontaneous in vitro SIA at baseline (BL) at indicated time points (n = 20). For significant differences between ΔDAS28 in both groups at different time points, significance levels are indicted: ^*P <0.05, ^**P <0.01. (E) Dot plot depicts the rate of spontaneous in vitro SIA in patients achieving a good therapeutic response after 12 weeks of etanercept (responder, Resp) (n = 20) and in patients with only moderate or no response (nonresponders, Nonresp). Significant differences are as indicated.