Figure 2.

After compensating for the antigen hyporesponsiveness, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) had a higher response to collagen type II (CII) than did healthy control individual PBMCs. Production of IFN-γ in RA patients (n = 45) and healthy control individuals (n = 25) in response to stimulation with native or denatured CII after compensation for the diminished responsiveness in RA patients (a) for purified protein derivative (PPD) and (b) for killed influenza virus are shown. On the y-axis the quotient between the CII-induced IFN-γ production and (a) the PPD-induced IFN-γ production and (b) the killed influenza virus-induced IFN-γ production is given. The box plots show the median as a line and the 25th and 75th centiles limiting the box, with the 10th and 90th centiles indicated with bars.