These were consistent with the findings that RA pretreatment inhibits the inflammatory cytokines through activating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ) and down-regulating the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB)-mediated signaling pathway in the rat myocardial IR injury (Han et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene NFKB1 and rheumatoid arthritis.