Fig. 4

Relationship between CTLA-4+, FOXP3+ and regulatory T cell subset proportions and disease activity measures in untreated early RA patients. Multivariate factor analysis was performed to investigate sex-based differences in the associations of CTLA-4⁺, FOXP3⁺, and regulatory T cell subset proportions with multiple disease activity measures in ueRA patients. OPLS column loading plots depicting the association between (a) CTLA-4⁺, (c) FOXP3⁺, and (e) regulatory T cell subset proportions (Y-variables) and disease activity measures (X-variables) in male (n = 22) and female (n = 48–50) ueRA patients. Correlation analyses between the proportion of (b) CTLA-4+ or (d) FOXP3+ T cell subsets proportions with disease activity measures in male and female ueRA patients, respectively.*P ≤ 0.05 and **P ≤ 0.01 (Spearman’s rank correlation test). Regression lines are presented in the correlation plots