Fig. 2.

Collagen triple helix repeat containing 1 (CTHRC1) expression is inducible both in mouse and in human arthritis. Naïve and arthritic mouse paws were analyzed for Cthrc1 RNA message using RT-PCR of the total RNA isolated from paws of naïve mice and mice with collagen antibody-induced arthritis (CAIA) (a). Protein content in synovium was measured using ImageJ densitometry of immunohistochemical-stained histological sections (b). Student’s t test was used to estimate the difference between arthritic and naive groups. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with an average 28-joint-count disease activity score of 3.61 (e), blood plasma contained a significantly higher absolute concentration of CTHRC1 (c) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (d) according to the Mann–Whitney U test. Horizontal lines show median with range. Gapdh glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase