Figure 1.

The distribution of activated cT_FH and T_FR cells in lupus patients and healthy individuals. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from 48 SLE patients and 36 healthy controls (HC) were then stained with fluorochrome-conjugated monoclonal antibodies, as described in Materials and Methods. The proportions of peripheral activated (act.) cT_FH cells and cT_FR cells were quantified as their percentage within CD4⁺ lymphocytes. (A) Representative dot plots from an active lupus patient and HC show the identification of activated cT_FH cells using ICOS and PD-1. Merged tSNE plots incorporating 30,000 CD4⁺ T cells from the corresponding lupus patient and healthy control show the act.cT_FH cluster identified by tSNE clustering analysis (red color represents act.cT_FH). Histograms show the expression of markers used to identify act.cT_FH cells. (B) Percentages of act.cT_FH cells. (C) Representative dot plots from an active SLE patient and HC show the identification of cT_FR cells by CD127 and CD25. Merged tSNE plots incorporating 30,000 CD4⁺ T cells from the corresponding lupus patient and healthy control show the cT_FR cluster identified by t-SNE clustering analysis (magenta color represents cT_FR). Histograms show the expression of markers used to identify cT_FR cells. (D) Percentages of cT_FR cells. (E) The proportions of act.cT_FH and cT_FR clusters among CD4⁺ T cells were indicated by the horizontal bars. Mann–Whitney nonparametric test was used (C,E). Box plots represent the interquartile range (IQR) with a line in the middle as the median. Statistically significant differences are indicated by *** p < 0.001; **** p < 0.0001.