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. 2021 Jun 1;10(6):e1293. doi: 10.1002/cti2.1293

Figure 6.

Figure 6

Low‐dose IL‐2 therapy elevated the Tfr/Tfh ratio in SLE patients. (a) Representative FACS plots showing circulating TCRαβ+CD3+CD4+CXCR5+CD25+CD127− Tfr cells in the PBMC of SLE patients at baseline (0w) and after low‐dose IL‐2 therapy (12w). (b–d) Statistics of CXCR5+ cells in total CD4+ T cells (b), Tfr cells in total CD4+ T cells (c) and the Tfr/Tfh ratio (d) at baseline (0w) and after IL‐2 therapy (12w). (e) Graphic model of the proposed low‐dose IL‐2 therapy mitigates pathogenic humoral immunity in NZB/W F1 mice via a step‐by‐step process. Short treatment regimen of low‐dose IL‐2 therapy inhibits Tfh cells and increases Tfr/Tfh ratio, medium treatment regimen of low‐dose IL‐2 therapy reduces Tfr cells and GC B cells, and long treatment regimen of low‐dose IL‐2 therapy mitigates pathogenic humoral immunity, alleviates renal histopathology and improved renal function. Data are shown for individual (dots, n = 23) and mean (bars) values and analysed by the Student's paired t‐test. PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell and SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus.