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. 2009 Jun 17;4(6):e5903. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005903

Figure 2. SSc patients express high levels of IL-17-positive T cells and the co-presence of IL-17 with either IFNγ, IFNα or TGFβ reflects SSc phenotype.

Figure 2

Panel A presents the percentage of IL-23R positive cells in the CD4+ positive pool of T cells (left panel) and CD45Ro and CD45Ra positive cells (right panel) from healthy controls (n = 14), and SSc patients with the lcSSc (n = 12), ldcSSc (n = 11) and edcSSc (n = 13) phenotype. Panel B shows the mean intracellular expression level of IL-17, IFNγ and TGFβ in CD4+ cells from each a representative individual from each tested group (left side). On the right side, the mean percentage of CD45Ro-positive or CD45Ra-positive cells that express IL-17, IFNγ or TGFβ and the mean intensity thereof are presented for the whole group of healthy controls (n = 14), and SSc patients with the lcSSc (n = 12), ldcSSc (n = 11) and edcSSc (n = 13) phenotype. Panel C depicts the percentage of CD25high cells that co-express IL-17 in healthy controls and different SSc phenotypes (* represents a p-value<0.01). Panel D represents the level of cytokines (IL-17 and IFNγ) spontaneously secreted by CD3+ T cells from healthy controls and SSc patients after 24 hrs of incubation. * P-value<0.0001, ** P-value<0.002, *** P-value<0.004.