Since studies in healthy murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and DCs showed that Axl expression is significantly enhanced by pro-inflammatory stimuli like LPS and TNF11, it was somehow surprising to note that, in early untreated active RA, most of the sublining cells, including both macrophages and CD90+ fibroblasts, do not express Axl on their surface; this was even further striking in the context of the DSP data showing that AXL transcript is among the genes upregulated in both lining and sublining. This evidence concerns the gene DSP and rheumatoid arthritis.