Fig. 1

Downregulation of UBASH3A in CD4⁺ T cells of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. A In silico screening for RA-susceptibility factors in the super-enhancer database (dbSUPER), GWAS, and biogene portal system (BioGPS). B Super-enhancer (SE_17452) domain mapped to the UBASH3A locus in CD4⁺ T cells. The locus is mapped to chromosome 21 at approximately 4,382,000–4,388,000. Histone H3 containing the acetylated lysine 27 (H3K27ac) marks are provided in GM12878, which shows lymphoblastoma cell line. Rs1893592-A/C is located in the intron between exons 10 and 11, marked with an asterisk. C The mRNA expression levels of the UBASH3A gene in CD4⁻ and CD4⁺ T cells of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from healthy donors (HD, n=11) and RA patients (n=24) were evaluated by RT-qPCR. D Expression levels of UBASH3A mRNA among three allele groups of patients with RA (rs1893592-AA, AC, and CC). E Expression levels of UBASH3A protein in CD4⁻ and CD4⁺ T cells of HD (n=3) and RA patients (n=3) evaluated by Western blotting. β-actin was used as a loading control. C, D Amount of UBASH3A transcript expressed relative to that of GAPDH transcript. Data are mean ± standard deviation. Dunnett’s multiple comparison test. F UBASH3A protein expression in CD4⁺ T cells from the lymph nodes of dermatomyositis (DM) and RA patients evaluated by immunofluorescence staining. RQ, relative quantification. *P<0.05, by Student’s t test and ANOVA. Scale bar = 100 μm