BAX and rheumatoid arthritis: Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that RA had a significant impact on the serum levels of NF-κB, HIF-1α, MMP-3, VEGF, and BAX [partial eta squared = 0.888, 0.879, 0.888, 0.936 and 0.711, respectively] (p = 0.001).