The Proportion of Regulatory T Cells in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Meta-Analysis

Table 2

Subgroup analysis based on different definitions of Tregs in PB of patients with SLE.

Definition of Tregs	Number of studies	Test of association			Test of heterogeneity		Egger’s test
		SMD^a	95% CI	value	^2	value
Single CD25-positive	18	−1.428	(−1.982, −0.873)	<0.001	93.4	<0.001	−4.29	0.001
CD25^+	9	−1.512	(−2.488, −0.535)	0.002	93.9	<0.001	−4.20	0.004
CD25^bright	2	−3.495	(−9.197, 2.207)	0.230	97.9	<0.001	—	—
CD25^high	7	−1.074	(−1.830, −0.318)	0.005	92.0	<0.001	−4.28	0.008
Associated with FOXP3-positive	29	−0.043	(−0.641, 0.554)	0.887	96.3	<0.001	0.55	0.585
CD25^low/−FOXP3^+	4	5.275	(1.415, 9.136)	0.007	98.3	<0.001	4.05	0.056
FOXP3^+	2	1.377	(0.124, 2.631)	0.031	80.1	0.025	—	—
CD25^+FOXP3^+	13	−1.142	(−1.942, −0.341)	0.005	95.2	<0.001	−2.01	0.069
CD25^highFOXP3^+	10	−0.701	(−1.283, −0.118)	0.018	89.6	<0.001	−0.63	0.544
Associated with CD127-negative	8	−1.093	(−2.002, −0.183)	0.018	92.6	<0.001	−3.05	0.022
CD25^+CD127^−	4	−1.128	(−1.894, −0.361)	0.004	81.0	0.001	−1.12	0.379
CD25^bright/highCD127^low/−	2	−12.392	(−37.922, 12.138)	0.341	97.5	<0.001	—	—
CD25^highCD127^low/−FOXP3^+	2	−0.667	(−2.664, 1.331)	0.513	96.1	<0.001	—	—

PB: peripheral blood; SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; SMD: standard mean difference; CI: confidence interval; ²: -squared index. ^aMagnitude of Cohen’s effect size (SMD): 0.2–0.5, small effect; 0.5–0.8, medium effect; ≥0.8, large effect.