Figure 2

Analysis of T-cell repertoire. TCRBV chain perturbations were determined by CDR3 spectratyping analysis in samples of RA patients, obtained before (T0) and after 12 months (T12) of ABA therapy, and of healthy controls (HC). A. Mean percentage of normally distributed polyclonal (≥7 peaks, Gaussian distribution), shifted/skewed (≥7 peaks, deviation from Gaussian distribution), restricted (≤ peaks 7, prominent deviation from Gaussian distribution) or mono/oligoclonal expanded (1 or 2 dominant peaks) TCRBV chains. B. Average percentage of TCRBV perturbations calculated with the generalized Hamming distance method [12]. Each symbol represents a subject’s overall TCRBV mean perturbation. C. Detailed analysis of TCRBV perturbation decrease at the single patient level. For each TCRBV, the perturbation observed at T0 was subtracted from that found at T12; when negative, this difference was coded as follows: white dots: 1-10% perturbation decrease; gray dots: 10- to -20% perturbation decrease; black dots >20% perturbation decrease. *Number of TCRBV chains in which the perturbations at T12 were decreased over total number of TCRBV chains analyzed.