CXCL8 and rheumatoid arthritis: Physiologically, a rise in the level of IL-8 indicates that there is increased inflammatory activity in the body of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as established Gremese et al, 2023 who noted that higher levels of IL-8 were found in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis and are associated with disease activity.9 The levels of IL-8 were significantly higher in the RA patient group compared to the control group (p < 0.001).