Phenotypic Characterization of Circulating CD4⁺ T Cells in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis

Figure 2

Percentages of total number of CD4⁺ T cells that are characterized as (a) Th17 cells (CD183⁻CD196⁺), (b) Th1 cells (CD183⁺CD196⁻), and (c) Th2 cells (CD183⁻CD196⁻). ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and the subgroups GPA and MPA or PR3-ANCA and MPO-ANCA are compared to healthy blood donors (HBD) and therapy controls (TC). Three statistical analyses were done using the Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s multiple comparison test: first, AAV was compared to TC and HBD; second, GPA and MPA were compared to TC and HBD; third PR3-ANCA and MPO-ANCA were compared to TC and HBD. The statistically significant differences from the first analysis are indicated in the figure. When comparing GPA and MPA against HBD and TC, we found that the GPA patients had a higher percentage of Th17 compared to HBD () and that both GPA () and MPA () had lower percentage of Th1 cells compared with HBD. The analysis of PR3- and MPO-ANCA patients showed similar results; i.e., PR3-ANCA had significantly higher percentage of Th17 cells compared with HBD () and both PR3-ANCA () and MPO-ANCA () had lower percentages of Th1 cells compared with HBD.

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