Treg/Th17 cell balance and phytohaemagglutinin activation of T lymphocytes in peripheral blood of systemic sclerosis patients

Figure 2 Increased percentage of Th17 cells within limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis subset vs healthy controls. A: Percentage of Th17 cells for lcSSc (n = 11), dcSSc (n = 13), and healthy controls (n = 16) is presented. Increased percentage of Th17 cells within lcSSc patients as opposed to controls, respectively, 20.46% ± 2.41% vs 13.73% ± 1.21%, P = 0.025. Boxplots are expressed as means ± SD; B-D: Panel B depicts the flow cytometric analysis of Th17 cells. A representative patient with lcSSc phenotype is shown. The lymphocytes were gated according to their physical characteristics (FSC and SSC) in R1; afterwards T helper cells (CD3+CD4+) were gated in R2. T helpers, which were detected double positive for CD161 and CD196 surface expression (R3, upper right quadrant) were defined as Th17 cells. lcSSc: Limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis.