Patients with a high cumulative GC dose within the active RA group had elevated serum levels in 23 inflammation-related proteins compared with patients with a low dose (chemokines: CCL3, CCL20, CCL25, IL–8 and CXCL9; cytokines/cytokine receptors: IL–10, IL–17A, IL–17C, IL–18, OSM, sIL–10RB, sIL–18R1 and sOPG; growth factors: sTGFα and sHGF; other inflammatory mediators: caspase 8, STAMBP, sCDCP1, sirtuin 2, 4E–BP1, sCD40, uPA and axin–1; pcorr < 0.05; Figure 1, Supplementary Figure S1, Supplementary Table S2). Here, CASP8 is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.