Genetic Association and Expression Correlation between Colony-Stimulating Factor 1 Gene Encoding M-CSF and Adult-Onset Still’s Disease

Figure 3

Increase of plasma M-CSF (macrophage colony-stimulating factor) levels in AOSD patients and correlation with the activity score, disease outcomes, and genotypes of SNP rs11102024 nearby CSF1 gene. (a, b) The plasma levels of M-CSF protein were determined in the samples of healthy controls () and AOSD patients (). (a) A significant increase of plasma M-CSF levels was detected in the AOSD patients compared to those of healthy controls. (b) The plasma levels of M-CSF are significantly increased in AOSD patients with activity scores 6-8, compared to those of AOSD patients with activity scores 3-5. (c, d) The AOSD patients () were divided into three groups according to the genotype of rs11102024. (c) AOSD patients carrying the SNP rs11102024 TT genotype showed significantly higher levels of M-CSF (, median: 20.28 pg/mL), compared to the carriers of AA genotype (; median: 6.82 pg/mL) () and AT genotype (; median: 11.61 pg/mL) (). (d) A significant increase of plasma M-CSF levels was detected in AOSD patients with rs11102024 TT genotype than those of AA/AT genotypes. (e) Correlation between the plasma levels of M-CSF and disease outcome of 82 AOSD patients (systemic pattern () and chronic articular pattern ()). AOSD patients with the systemic pattern showed a significant increase of M-CSF (median: 10.79 pg/mL) compared to those with chronic articular pattern (median: 6.23 pg/mL). These results are expressed as the with each dot representing the data of an individual. Statistical analysis was performed using a two-tailed, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)