Fig. 4.

MBD4 regulates the methylation status of CD70 gene promoter in CD4⁺ T cells. a Comparison of the CD70 promoter methylation levels between normal CD4⁺ T cells transfected with MBD4 siRNA and negative control. Ten clones from each amplified fragment were sequenced. The methylation status of each CG pair (X-axis) within the region from − 581 to −288 bp upstream of the CD70 gene was assessed and indicated as the mean methylation status (Y-axis). b The average methylation level of 10 CG pairs (− 512, − 510, − 508, − 487, − 465, − 439, − 436, − 423, − 384, and − 338 bp) was significantly downregulated when MBD4 expression was inhibited in normal CD4⁺ T cells. c Comparison of CD70 promoter methylation levels between SLE CD4⁺ T cells transfected with MBD4 expression plasmid and negative control. d The mean methylation level of the region from − 581 to − 288 bp excluding one CG pair located in − 447 bp, was upregulated in SLE CD4⁺ T cells with MBD4 overexpression compared with negative controls. All data represent the mean of three independent experiments per group (**P < 0.01, *P < 0.05)