CD4 and rheumatoid arthritis: Consistent with previous studies demonstrating reduced expression of miR-125b in some autoimmune diseases, particularly in psoriatic keratinocytes and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) CD4+ T lymphocytes [22, 23], we found that the expression of miR-125b in both PBMCs and plasma is lower in treatment-naïve patients with early RA than in HC.