Table 2.

Synovial and skin immunohistological expression of CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3 and CD31 prior to and following abatacept treatment

	Baseline		2 Months		6 Months	P value
						0 vs 2 months		0 vs 6 months
	ABA	PBO	ABA	PBO	ABA	ABA	PBO	ABA
Synovium
CD3	2.66 (±1.2)	1.8 (±0.8)	2.3 (±1)	2.25 (±1.5)	2.22 (±1.3)	0.679	0.824	0.739
CD4	2.83 (±1.2)	2.4 (±1.5)	2.3 (±0.8)	2.75 (±1.3)	1.78 (±1.1)	0.296	1	0.073
CD8	1.66 (±0.8)	2 (±1)	1.3 (±1)	1.75 (±1)	1.33 (±0.7)	0.576	0.604	0.129
FOXP3	5 (±6)	4.4 (±4.4)	2.8 (±2.2)	4.6 (±4)	1.13 (±2.4)	0.407	0.807	0.027*
CD31	78.3 (±53.9)	85.6 (±50.2)	67.6 (±75.9)	155.5 (±136)	73.22 (±69.9)	0.621	0.482	0.813
Skin
CD3	2.6 (±0.8)	2.4 (±0.9)	2.25 (±1.5)	2.5 (±2.1)	2.43 (±1.1)	0.718	0.717	0.891
CD4	3.5 (±0.5)	2.8 (±1.1)	2.75 (±0.9)	4 (±0)	3.14 (±0.9)	0.182	1	0.891
CD8	2 (±0.6)	1.75 (±1)	1.5 (±0.6)	2 (±1.4)	1.71 (±0.8)	0.718	0.423	0.577
FOXP3	16 (±9.5)	9.2 (±10.7)	9.5 ±4.5	17.5 ±2.1	13.14 ±8.3	0.743	0.709	0.497
CD31	61.2 (±38)	65.4 (±20.5)	75.5 ±17.1	64.5 ±10.6	54.71 ±17.2	0.788	0.749	0.612

The Wilcoxon test and the paired sample t test were used for analysis. Results are presented as mean ± SD

Number of ABA samples at 0, 2 and 6 months: synovial n = 7, n = 6, n = 9; skin n = 6, n = 5, n = 7, respectively. Number of PBO samples at 0 and 2 months: synovial n = 7, n = 5; skin n = 5, n = 4, respectively. Expression of CD3, CD4 and CD8 was scored on a 5-point scale (0–4). CD31 expression was scored by the number of positive vessels/10 high power fields. Forkhead box protein transcription factor 3 (FOXP3) expression was scored as %/300 cells. ABA abatacept group, PBO placebo group. *Statistically significant