Our study not only confirmed this association in Japanese RA, but also showed that the association of SE with ACPA-negative RF-positive RA is mainly due to the effect of HLA-DRB1*04:05 and that HLA-DRB1*09:01, HLA-DR14, and homozygote of HLA-DR8 are specifically associated with subsets of ACPA-negative RA. Here, PRTN3 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.