Increased Kappa/Lambda Hybrid Antibody in Serum Is a Novel Biomarker Related to Disease Activity and Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Figure 4

The relationship between serum levels of κ/λ hybrid antibody and disease activity in RA. (a) Levels of κ/λ hybrid antibody in the serum of RA patients positively correlated with DAS28 (, ). (b) The distribution of κ/λ hybrid antibody in RA patients with different disease activity status; RA disease activity on the basis of DAS28 was defined as follows: remission and low = DAS28 < 3.2 (), moderate = DAS28 between 3.2 and 5.1 (), and high = DAS28 > 5.1 (); the κ/λ hybrid antibody levels were significantly higher in the high and moderate disease activity groups than in the low disease activity and remission groups ( and , resp.); the differences of κ/λ hybrid antibody levels between groups were assessed using the Mann-Whitney test, , , and . (c, d) Levels of κ/λ hybrid antibody in the serum of RA patients correlated with ESR (, ) and CRP (, ). Concentrations of κ/λ hybrids antibody are presented in arbitrary units (AU/mL). Symbols represent individual subjects. Correlations were determined by Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients with 95% confidence interval.

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