Rivellese once reported that high mast cell count is associated with local and systemic inflammation, autoantibody positivity, and high disease activity, and mast cells in early RA positively correlated with disease severity and support B-cell autoantibody production, which were in accordance with the role of ATF3 verified by cell function experiments in our study (Rivellese et al., 2018). Here, ATF3 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.