Fig. 3

Western blot analyses. a The Ponceau staining shows 1 μg of total proteins extracted from inflamed joints of CIA mice (§) separated by 10 % SDS-PAGE. b The same membrane stained with Ponceau was probed with anti-M12 antibodies purified from pooled sera of RA patients (†) and HCs (‡). Anti-M12 antibodies displayed strong reactivity with a protein extracted from inflamed joints of CIA mice presenting with mass of approximately 29 kDa (arrow). Carbonic anhydrase III (CAIII) was identified as the protein target that is mimicked by the M12 mimotope. The membrane was cropped to allow differential incubation with anti-M12 antibodies purified from RA patients and HCs