Gene Expression Profiling in Peripheral Blood in Untreated New Onset Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (sJIA) has been strongly associated with macrophage activation syndrome (MAS). To better understand the pathogenesid of sJIA and to facilitate the search for MAS biomarkers, we examine gene expression profiles in untreated new onset sJIA. 17 new onset sJIA patients were included in the study. 5 of the 17 patients showed evidence of subclinical MAS and 2 eventually developed overt MAS. Keywords: disease versus control Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were separated using a Ficoll gradient from the 17 new onset sJIA patients and 30 normal control. RNA was extracted from the PBMCS and subsequently hybridized to Affymetrix microarrays