Performance of a commercially available multiplex platform in the assessment of circulating cytokines and chemokines in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

Background/objective: Cytokines and chemokines (cytokines) are central to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis, with increasing use of multiplex immunoassays in clinical/research settings. Rheumatoid factor (RF) may interfere with assay outcomes by nonspecifically binding detection analytes. We evaluated the performance of a commercially available multiplex platform, including assessment of the impact of RF depletion.