Evaluation of hRasGRP4 mRNA levels in PBMCs. A qPCR approach was used to quantify the overall levels of hRasGRP4 transcripts in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy individuals and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatic diseases such as SLE, Sjögren's syndrome (SS), systemic sclerosis (SSc), and polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM). Shown are the relative quantities (RQ) of human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (hGAPDH)-corrected levels of the hRasGRP4 transcript in each sample. One of the healthy individuals was assigned to determine the value of 1. In all of the healthy individuals and patients, assays were done in a triplicate manner and mean values are plotted in the figure. Normal upper limit of the transcript level was defined as mean transcript level + 2SD of the healthy controls. Numbers of the patients whose hRasGRP4 transcript levels are above the normal upper limit were evaluated using Fisher's exact test.
Hashimoto et al. Arthritis Research & Therapy 2011 13:R154 doi:10.1186/ar3470