Table 2

The correlations between the frequencies of circulating GLK-expressing T-cells, the relative expression levels of GLK protein, GLK transcript and disease activity parameters as well as Th17-related cytokines in 24 patients with adult-onset Still's disease

Circulating GLK-expressing

T-cells (%)

Relative expression levels of GLK protein

Relative expression levels of GLK transcript

Clinical activity scores

0.599**

0.435*

0.452*

C-reactive protein (mg/dL)

0.455*

0.315

0.364

Ferritin (μg/L)

0.508*

0.296

0.318

Soluble IL-2R (pg/mL)

0.865***

0.569**

0.803***

IL-1β (pg/mL)

0.281

0.152

0.063

IL-6 (pg/mL)

0.822***

0.423*

0.547**

IL-17A (pg/mL)

0.787***

0.699***

0.740***

TNF-α (pg/mL)

0.295

0.177

0.310

GLK: germinal center kinase-like kinase; IL: interleukin; IL-2R: interleukin-2 receptor; TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-alpha. *P <0.05, **P <0.005, ***P <0.001 obtained by the nonparametric Spearman's rank correlation test.

Chen et al. BMC Medicine 2012 10:84   doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-84