Patients
RA synovial tissue was obtained from RA patients (n=12, five males,
seven females, aged 30-70 years old, mean age 50 years) during
synovectomy or joint replacement surgery at the Shandong Provincial
Hospital (Jinan, China). All patients met the diagnostic criteria for RA
as revised by the American college of rheumatology in 1987. The majority
of patients were treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs
(DMARDs), including methotrexate, and none were on biologics.
Demographic data are provided in Online Supplementary Table 1. The study
was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Shandong Medicinal
Biotechonogy Center (SMBC17LL007) and was conducted according to the
recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki. All patients provided
informed consent for participation in the study.