Patent ID: 7741030

Claim:
A method for determining whether a human subject has developed rheumatoid arthritis or has the likelihood of developing rheumatoid arthritis, comprising: (i) detecting whether CpG sequences in a region from base 374 to base 592 of SEQ ID NO: 1 in a DR3 gene promoter region obtained from synovial cells or synovial infiltrating lymphocytes of the human subject are methylated or not; and (ii) determining that the human subject has developed rheumatoid arthritis or has the likelihood of developing rheumatoid arthritis when there is an increase in the number of methylated CpG sequences in the region from base 374 to base 592 of SEQ ID NO: 1 are methylated as compared to a control DR3 gene promoter region from base 374 to base 592 of SEQ ID NO: 1.