Flow Cytometric Detection of p38 MAPK Phosphorylation and Intracellular Cytokine Expression in Peripheral Blood Subpopulations from Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases
Figure 4
p-p38 detection in PBMCs subpopulations from normal controls and patients with autoimmune diseases. PBMCs from a representative healthy individual and patients with autoimmune disorders ((a), (b), and (c)) were left untreated or stimulated with PMA plus Ionomycin for 30 min and stained with MoAbs against CD3, CD56, CD11c, CD20, and p-p38. Cell subsets were subgated based on surface epitope staining and plotted for p-p38. (a) A representative comparison of CD11c+ p-p38+ and CD3+ p-p38+ cells between a healthy control and a patient with systemic sclerosis is shown. (b) PBMCs stimulated with PMA plus Ionomycin or IL-12 plus IL-18. Shown here are percentages of CD56+ CD3− p-p38+ cells from a RA patient using different stimuli (Gate R1). (c) Shown here are CD3+ p-p38+, CD3− p-p38+, CD20+ p-p38+, and CD20− p-p38+ cells after 30 min stimulation from another healthy donor.
