Fig 5.
Microparticles from patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) induce in vitro the release of proinflammatory cytokines. Plasma microparticles (MPs) were isolated from healthy individuals (empty bars) and patients (filled bars) with a high disease activity score (DAS) index (>5·1) and added or not to autologous monocytes (a,b,d) or mononuclear cells (MNC) (c), and then cells were cultured for 24 h in the presence or not of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or a phorbol ester (phorbol myristate acetate) plus ionomycin (Io). Then, cell culture supernatants were obtained and the concentration of the indicated cytokines was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). * P < 0·05; n.s. = not significant; Ctrl = control.