Figure 3.

Specific and differential expression profile of genes related to atherosclerosis in CD16⁺ and CD14⁺ monocytes from RA patients compared to HDs. (A) Atherosclerosis RT2 profiler PCR array performed in CD14⁺ and CD16⁺ monocytes isolated from 12 RA patients and 12 HDs. Heat-map of the differentially expressed genes in CD16⁺ RA or CD14⁺ RA monocytes vs. CD16⁺ HD and CD14⁺ HD monocytes, respectively. (B) Validation of the PCR array in CD14⁺ and CD16⁺ monocytes through RT-PCR in samples of 50 RA patients and 30 HDs, separately. Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by a Dunn's multiple comparison test was performed. ^aIndicates significant differences vs. CD14⁺ HDs, ^bindicates significant differences vs. CD14⁺ RA, ^cindicates significant differences vs. CD16⁺ HDs (p < 0.05).