Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Show Increased Levels and Defective Function of CD69⁺ T Regulatory Cells

Figure 3

Levels of CD4⁺CD69⁺ and CD4⁺NKG2D⁺ Treg cells and clinical features of SLE patients. The frequency of CD4⁺CD69⁺ and CD4⁺NKG2D⁺ cells was determined in freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus by flow cytometry, as indicated in Materials and Methods. (a, b) Correlation analysis between the levels of CD4⁺NKG2D⁺ cells and SLEDAI score or time of disease evolution in patients with SLE. and values (Spearman correlation test) are shown. (c, d) Levels of CD4⁺CD69⁺ and CD4⁺CD69⁺NKG2D⁺ Treg cells in the peripheral blood from SLE patients with (SLEDAI > 4.0) or without (SLEDAI ≤ 4.0) disease activity are shown.

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