To the present study we recruited patients with recent-onset RA who had not started DMARD therapy, another group of patients with chronic DMARD-irresponsive RA who started biological therapy, and a reference group of healthy subjects, and determined STAT1 and STAT6 phosphorylation in circulating leukocyte subsets in response to cytokine stimulation (IFN-γ and IL-4, respectively) using whole blood flow cytometry. This evidence concerns the gene IL4 and rheumatoid arthritis.