Figure 1.

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is increased in the serum of very early rheumatoid arthritis (VERA) patients and in synovial fluid (SF) of established rheumatoid arthritis (RA). (a) The serum concentration of IL-8 was measured in VERA and very early arthritis (VEA) patients as well as healthy controls and patients with established RA. The serum concentration of IL-8 was increased in VERA patients compared with any other group. Dotted line represents the limit of detection for the assay. (b) The concentration of IL-8 was measured in the SF collected from patients with established RA and from a control group with osteoarthritis (OA). We found a significant increase of IL-8 in RA-SF. Differences were considered statistically significant for P values of less than 0.05 according to the Mann-Whitney test.