Inhibition of Aberrant Circulating Tfh Cell Proportions by Corticosteroids in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Figure 2
Aberrant circulating CXCR5+ PD1+/CD4+ but not CCR6+/CD4+ T cells correlated with disease activity in SLE patients.
A. Elevated circulating CXCR5+ PD1+/CD4+ cells in SLE patients compared to normal controls. PBMCs were quantified by FACS, each symbol represented an individual sample and horizontal lines showed median values. Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to compare the data between two groups. B. Circulating CCR6+/CD4+ cell proportions enriched for Th17-like cells were compared between SLE patients and normal controls. C. Correlation between percentages of CXCR5+ PD1+/CD4+ cells and disease activity of 42 SLE patients. Pearson correlation was applied to depict linear relationships.