Fig. 3: Overexpression of GRIM-19 downregulates Th2 and Th17 cells and alleviates skin fibrosis. | Experimental & Molecular Medicine

Fig. 3: Overexpression of GRIM-19 downregulates Th2 and Th17 cells and alleviates skin fibrosis.

From: GRIM-19-mediated induction of mitochondrial STAT3 alleviates systemic sclerosis by inhibiting fibrosis and Th2/Th17 cells

Fig. 3

A murine model of SSc was generated as described in Fig. 1. Mice were injected intravascularly with the pFLAG-CMV-5a R12 mGRIM-19 plasmid (n = 5) or mock (n = 5) vector once a week for 5 weeks from the start of bleomycin treatment and euthanized on Day 35. a The frequencies of Th2 (IL-4+CD4+) and Th17 (IL-17+CD4+) cells in the peripheral blood were analyzed via flow cytometry. b Skin sections were stained with fluorescently labeled antibodies against CD4 (APC), IL-4 (PE), and IL-17 (FITC), and the number of IL-4+CD4+ and IL-17+CD4+ cells was examined via confocal microscopy. c Skin sections stained with MT. The percentage of tissue area affected by fibrosis is plotted. d Skin sections were stained with antibodies against Col1 and α-SMA. The number of antibody-positive cells (mean ± SEM) is plotted. Original magnification: 400×; scale bar: 100 µm. *p < 0.1, ***p < 0.001 (unpaired nonparametric t-test).

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