Fig. 3

The rate of glutamine metabolism is increased in FLSs-RA. A Glutamine uptake and B glutaminase activity were examined in FLSs from normal subjects and RA patients. C FLS of normal and RA patients were cultured under normal or low glutamine conditions. Cell viability was examined by clonogenic and MTT assays. D Protein expression of GLS in FLS of normal and RA patients was detected by Western blotting. β-actin served as an internal control. The significant differences between the two groups were identified using the Mann–Whitney U test. Values are means (± SD, n = 3). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01