Expression levels of miR-146a and miR-223 in PBMCs of RA patients with low disease activity score. PBMCs were isolated from the blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or healthy controls and the expression levels of miR-146a and miR-223 were quantified using real-time RT-PCR. For normalization, the endogenous RNU48 was used. (a,b) Expression levels of miR-146a and miR-223 in RA patients and healthy donors. Results are expressed as mean ± SD of individual sample of 21 RA patients and 22 healthy subjects; (c,d) Patients were divided according to their gender in each group (RA and HC). Results are expressed as mean ± SD of individual sample of 10 RA females, 11 RA males, 11 healthy females and 10 healthy males, ** p < 0.01, Mann–Whitney test; (e,f) Correlations between miRNA expression levels and clinical characteristics of the cohort, miR146a and miR-223 expression level between disease duration (e) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (Anti-CCP) antibodies titers (f), respectively.