Patients

A total of 53 untreated patients with IRP were selected, including 31 females and 22 males (median age, 34 years; range, 10–78 years). Additionally, 60 patients who had recovered from IRP were enrolled, including 33 females and 27 males (median age, 26 years; range, 12–68 years). For the control groups, 14 patients with SAA and 14 patients with MDS were enrolled, and sera from 34 healthy individuals matched for sex and age served as the healthy controls. Serum samples from all the participants were stored at −80°C for further detection of FTL antibodies. The response criteria were set based on the response criteria of aplastic anemia (AA) (30).

Among the above-mentioned patients, 35 patients with IRP who did not receive treatment, 20 patients who had recovered from IRP, 7 patients with MDS and 12 healthy patients were enrolled and their fresh peripheral blood samples (5 ml) were collected to detect FTL-mRNA levels by PCR.

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University. All the experiments were performed in accordance with the approved protocol.