Serum Cytokines Th1, Th2, and Th17 Expression Profiling in Active Lupus Nephritis-IV: From a Southern Chinese Han Population

Figure 3

Comparison of the ratio of Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells expressed cytokines in patients with different classes of LN and healthy controls and their correlationship with SLEDAI. (a) Th1/Th2 cells cytokines IL-18/IL-4 ratio was significantly increased in LN-IV compared to other classes of LN-III (), LN-V (), and healthy control (). (b) The Th17/Th2 cell cytokines IL-17A/IL-4 ratio was significantly higher in LN-IV when compared with LN-III (), LN-V (), and healthy control (). (c) Similarly, Th1/Th2 cell cytokines IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio was significantly elevated in LN-IV compared to HC (). IL-18/IL-4 and IFN-γ/IL-4 ratios were significantly correlated with SLEDAI (; and ; ) in LN-IV patients (d, f). IL-17A/IL-4 negatively correlated with SLEDAI (; ) but statistically was not significant (e). Mann–Whitney test was applied for group comparison and Spearman correlation test was used to see the correlationship between two parameters. value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

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