Gene Expression Analysis in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

The measurement of expression level of several genes shown below in peripheral blood of human subjects (18 patients with rheumatic disease) before and after tocilizumab medication using DNA microarray (Hitachi human oligo chip) was conducted in this test,1) Interleukin 6 (IL-6), membrane IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) and soluble type of the IL-6R,2) several cytochrome P450 as follows: CYP3A4, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19.Number of human subjects was 18 and peripheral blood samples drawn at 4 time points:day 0 (the first Omeprazole administration was done), day 7 (Tocilizumab administration was done), day 21 and day 42 for each subject were analyzed. On day 0 and day 7, the blood sampling was done before drug administration.