Fig. 5

Effect of sex on the differential proportions of T cell subsets in untreated early RA patients compared to healthy controls. Multivariate factor analysis was performed to investigate whether the sex affects change in the profile of T cell subsets in ueRA compared to HC. OPLS-DA column loading plots showing the association between ueRA or HC (Y-variables) and T cell subset proportions (X-variables) (a) in males (n = 20–22) and (b) in females (n = 48–50). X-variables (light grey bars) pointing in the same direction as ueRA (top dark grey bar) are positively associated, whereas X-variables pointing in the opposite direction are positively associated with HC (bottom dark grey bar). Comparison of the proportions in CD45RA^negCD4⁺ cells of (c) Th2, (d) Th1Th17, (e) Th17, (f) Th1, (g) CCR6⁺ only, (h) CTLA-4⁺, (i) Tregs (CD25⁺CD127^low), and counts of (j) CD45RA^negCD4⁺ (memory cells), and (k) all CD4⁺ cells between ueRA patients and HC are shown for males and females respectively. Horizontal bars indicate the median. Two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001 and ****P ≤ 0.0001