Anderson AE, et al. - Authors investigated 161 individuals to assess the clinical relevance of expression of STAT3-regulated genes in circulating CD4+ T cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They recorded the STAT3-mediated dysregulation of BCL3, SOCS3 and PIM1 in circulating CD4+ T cells, a prejudiced characteristic of early RA which took place independently of acute phase response. The expression of these target genes was associated strongly with paired intracellular phospho-STAT3.