Microarray analysis of the synovial membrane of rheumatoid arthritis patients undergoing anti-TNF therapy. Microarray analysis of the synovial membrane of rheumatoid arthritis patients undergoing anti-TNF therapy

Synovial biopsies of Rheumatoid Arthritis patients were obtained at week 20 of anti-TNF therapy. The clinical response to therapy was determined comparing the DAS28 at this time point with the baseline DAS28, using the EULAR response criteria. Gene expression profiles of patients responding to anti-TNF therapy were compared to non-responders and different genes, pathways and deconvoluted cell types were found to be differential between both groups of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Overall design: Synovial samples were obtained by guided arthroscopy using a 2.7 mm arthroscope from 11 Rheumatoid Arthritis patients starting anti-TNF therapy. Samples were immediately preserved in RNALater at -80ºC until extraction. After total RNA extraction, gene expression profiles for 21,000 genes were obtained using WG6 Illumina Sentrix whole genome Beadchips .

类风湿关节炎（Rheumatoid Arthritis）患者的滑膜活检样本采集于抗TNF治疗的第20周。采用EULAR应答标准（EULAR response criteria），通过对比该时间点的DAS28（疾病活动度评分28，Disease Activity Score 28）与基线DAS28，评估患者对治疗的临床应答情况。将对抗TNF治疗存在应答的患者的基因表达谱与无应答者进行比较，结果显示两组类风湿关节炎患者的基因、通路及反卷积细胞类型均存在显著差异。
总体实验设计：从11名初始接受抗TNF治疗的类风湿关节炎患者中，通过2.7毫米关节镜引导下的关节镜手术获取滑膜样本。样本即刻保存于RNALater中，并置于-80℃环境下储存直至总RNA提取。完成总RNA提取后，使用WG6型Illumina Sentrix全基因组微珠芯片获取21000个基因的表达谱数据。