Research Article

Impaired Cytokine Responses to Epstein-Barr Virus Antigens in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Figure 4

Impaired induction of IFNγ (a), IL4 (b), and IL17 (c) in SLE patients upon EBV-EA/D stimulation. IFNγ (a), IL4 (b), and IL17 (c) quantified in dried blood spot samples from SLE patients (with normal lymphocyte levels, ) and sex- and age-matched HCs () by multiplexed Luminex assay with addition of HBR+. Left: cytokine concentrations (pg/mL) in SLE patients and HCs upon EBV-EA/D stimulation. Data are presented as median with interquartile range. values for comparison of SLE patients and HCs are 0.005, 0.443, and 0.191 in (a), (b), and (c), respectively. Right: induction of cytokines (pg/mL) from basic levels (PBS stimulation) by EBV-EA/D stimulation in SLE patients and HCs.