Fig 1.
STROBE checklist.
Fig 2.
Phenotype of B subsets in whole blood of patients with severe periodontitis (SP) and controls (No Periodontitis).
A) The gating strategy used after doublet exclusion allows the characterisation eight different and distinct B cell subsets. B) Circulating B cell distribution reveals an increase in the switched memory B cells and a decrease in the mature B cells in the SP patients in comparison with the controls. p value is indicated when significant. Plasmablasts: PB; Transitional B cells: TR; CD5+ B cells: CD5+; double negative IgD-CD27- B cells: DN; switched memory B cells: SwM; unswitched memory B cells: USwM; mature B cells: Mature and naïve B cells: Naïve.
Fig 3.
Phenotype of B1 and CD5+ B cells in whole blood of patients with severe periodontitis (SP) and controls (No Periodontitis).
A) The gating strategy used after doublet exclusion allows the characterisation of B cells according to CD11b and CD5 expression but also the human B1 subset (CD20+CD69-CD43+CD27+). B) Circulating B cell distribution according to CD11b and CD5 expression reveals a decrease in the CD11b+CD5+ B cells in the SP patients in comparison with the controls. C) B1 B cells are lower in the SP patients in comparison with the controls. D) Among B1 cells the CD11b+ B1 regulatory subset is markedly decrease in the SP patients. p value is indicated when significant.
Fig 4.
Expression of RANKL in the B cell subsets from patients with severe periodontitis and controls (No Periodontitis).
A) Expression of RANKL in the eight distinct B cell subsets defined in Fig 1. B) Expression of RANKL in the circulating B cell distribution according to CD11b and CD5 expression. C) Expression of RANKL in B1 cells. Mean fluorescence intensity: MFI; Plasmablasts: PB; Transitional B cells: TR; CD5+ B cells: CD5+; double negative IgD-CD27- B cells: DN; switched memory B cells: SwM; unswitched memory B cells: USwM; mature B cells: Mature and naïve B cells: Naïve.
Fig 5.
Expression of B cell activation markers in the B cell subsets from patients with severe periodontitis (SP) and controls (No Periodontitis).
A) The percentage of CD69+ B cells expressing RANKL was higher in the SP patients in comparison with the controls. B) The percentage of CD25+ B cells was higher in the SP patients in comparison with the controls. Mean fluorescence intensity: MFI, p value is indicated when significant.