Analysis of Sodium Chloride Intake and Treg/Th17 Lymphocytes in Healthy Individuals and Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Figure 4

Functional analysis of Treg lymphocytes in healthy controls and patients with SLE or RA, with low- and high-salt intake. PBMC were depleted or not of CD69⁺ or CD25⁺ cells, stimulated through CD3/CD28 for 7 h, and then, the expression of CD40L was assessed by flow cytometry, as indicated in the Materials and Methods. (a) Flow cytometry dot plots showing the expression of CD40L in unfractionated and Treg cell-depleted PBMC stimulated through CD3/CD28. These data correspond to cells from a HSI healthy control. (b) Suppressor activity (calculated as stated in the Materials and Methods) of CD25⁺ Treg cells in healthy controls (Ctrl) and patients with SLE or RA, with low- or high-sodium intake. (c) Suppressor activity of CD69⁺ Treg cells in healthy controls (Ctrl) and patients with SLE or RA, with low- or high-sodium intake. (d–f) In separate experiments, PBMC were depleted or not of CD69⁺ or CD25⁺ cells and stimulated through CD3/CD28 for 24 h, and then, the levels of the indicated cytokines were analyzed in cell supernatants as stated in the Materials and Methods. Data from patients with RA and healthy controls, with low- and high-sodium intake, are shown. ; ; ns: nonsignificant. Data correspond to the median and IQR.

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