Figure 4

Spontaneous shedding of CD18 from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) cultured in vitro . (A) Levels of spontaneous shedding of CD18 from spondyloarthritis (SpA) and healthy control (HC) PBMCs. The median values were 22.0 mU/mL (interquartile range 14.0-51.8 mU/mL) for HLA-B27-positive SpA patients, 51.7 mU/mL (interquartile range 21.5-57.0 mU/mL) for HLA-B27-negative SpA patients, and 11.2 mU/mL (interquartile range 8.59-12.3 mU/mL) for HCs. PBMCs from 5 HLA-B27-positive SpA patients, 5 HLA-B27-negative patients, and 5 HCs were used. Bars indicate median and interquartile range. (B) Correlation between PBMC donor BASDAI score and the spontaneously shed CD18 in the PBMC culture supernatant. (C) CD18 spontaneous shedding capacity and correlation with matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) production. PBMCs from 10 patients with SpA were used. Hatched horizontal lines connect identical measurements of sCD18. Solid black lines represent the best fit in linear regression. *P <0.05.