Figure 7: Human Th17 cells and SLE T cells express increased amounts of ICER.

(a) The gating strategy used to define and sort the primary lymphocytes memory subsets: Th1 (CD4⁺CD45RA⁻CXCR3⁺); Th2 (CD4⁺CD45RA⁻CCR6⁻CCR4⁺CXCR3⁻); Th17 (CD4⁺CD45RA⁻CCR6⁺CCR4⁺); and Treg (CD4⁺CD25⁺CD127⁻). (b) FACS-sorted Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells were stimulated with plate-bound anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies for 12 h. ICER and β-actin expression was determined by western blot (*P<0.05; mean±s.e.m., n=4). (c) Purified CD4⁺ T cells from healthy donors (HD) and SLE patients were stimulated with plate-bound anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies. On day 4, cells were collected and CREM subsets and β-actin expression were examined by western blot. The graphs show cumulative data of densitometry for ICER. (*P<0.05; mean±s.e.m.; HD n=9 and SLE n=17). See Supplementary Fig. 5 for uncropped scans of the western blot and Supplementary Table 1 for patient information.