Fig. 3

Citrulline-specific CD4+ T cells in LN biopsies from arthralgia and early RA patients. Lymph node biopsies were stained for citrullinated vimentin-, citrullinated α-enolase- and citrullinated CILP/FGB-reactive T cells after in vitro propagation using the tetramers according to Table 2, i.e. two cit vim-, three cit α-eno-, three cit CILP/FGB-peptide-loaded tetramers. Displayed are plots from both RA and arthralgia patients (upper panel) and one patient with undifferentiated arthritis (UA) as well as one healthy control (HC, lower panel) showing tetramer-positive cells against CD4. Numbers in the upper right quadrant present the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of the tetramer-positive staining, which can help in assessing positive staining. Cut-off for positivity for the different tetramer-cocktails are MFI > 400 for cit vim, MFI > 600 for cit α-eno and MFI > 320 for cit CILP/FGB. Plots marked with a red asterisk show positive staining. The numbers of positive tested individuals/tested individuals in total is depicted below the plots for each specificity for both RA and arthralgia patients