Fig. 2.

PIAS3 attenuates inflammatory cell infiltration in the spines of mice with SpA. a Spine tissues were isolated from PIAS3 vector- or Mock vector-treated mice with SpA at 10 weeks after curdlan injection and stained with H&E (black arrow = inflammatory cells). Spondylitis score is shown in the bar graphs. b Spine tissues were stained with specific Abs against IL-17, TNF-α, STAT3, pSTAT3 s727, pSTAT y705, BMP2/4, and PIAS3. PIAS3 suppresses the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, STAT3 and BMP2/4 in the affected spines of mice with SpA. Pro-inflammatory cytokine-, STAT3-, and PIAS3-positive cells are shown in the bar graphs. Data are represented as the mean ± SEM of three independent experiments (*P < 0.05)