Fig. 1

Reduced kidney ILC2 numbers linked to spontaneous lupus development in MRL-lpr mice. A–C Spleen morphology (A) and weight (B). Representative images of H&E and PAS staining showing the increased glomerular area in old MRL-lpr mice (A, C). Scale bars, 20 μm. D Serum anti-dsDNA IgG, BUN and creatinine (Cr) levels (n = 7–9). E Gene expression levels of Ifng, Tnf, Mcp-1, Il6, and Il1b in renal tissue were quantified using RT‒qPCR (n = 7). F Unbiased immunophenotyping of high-parameter flow cytometry data for CD45⁺ kidney immune cells. G–H Kidney ILCs (lineage⁻CD127⁺) and CD4⁺ T cells (lineage⁺ CD4⁺) (G) and their percentages among CD45⁺ immune cells (H) in 3- to 20-week-old MRL-lpr mice. (n = 4-5) (I) Flow cytometry analysis of Annexin V⁺ apoptotic cells and Ki-67⁺ proliferating cells among ILCs and CD4⁺ T cells (n = 8–10). J Experimental design for the scRNA-seq analysis of ILC-enriched renal cells from pooled samples from young and old MRL-lpr mice. K UMAP plot showing 20 distinct kidney cell types identified by unsupervised clustering (left panel) and their comparison across glomerulonephritis development in MRL-lpr mice (right panel). L Dot plot showing the expression of various inflammatory and regulatory cytokines in immune cell clusters. M Comparison of Areg and TGF-β1 expression assessed using flow cytometry (n = 5–6). All results are shown as the means ± SEMs, and the statistical analysis was performed using the Mann‒Whitney U test or Kruskal‒Wallis test. ns, not significant; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; and ***P < 0.001. DC dendritic cell, Mac or Mφ macrophage, Neu neutrophil, B B cell, T T cell, Ery erythrocyte, Epi epithelial cell, Endo endothelial cell, PT proximal tubule cell