Fig. 1

Decreased expression of SHP2 in SSc. a The mRNA levels of SHP2 are significantly reduced in SSc skin as compared to healthy skin (n = 7). b Immunohistochemistry of SHP2 in SSc skin and matched healthy controls. Representative images are shown at 200- and 1000-fold magnification. c Immunofluorescence staining of SHP2 with co-staining for the fibroblast marker P4Hβ, the endothelial cell marker CD31 and the leukocyte marker CD45, and DAPI. SSc fibroblasts demonstrated a reduced staining for SHP2 compared to healthy control. Representative images are shown at 400-fold magnification. Immunofluorescence pictures were processed to generate Voronoi tessellated pictures amenable to computational simulation. Quantification of SHP2 staining intensity (n = 5) and of SHP2-positive cells (n = 5). d, e The mRNA (n = 5) (d) and protein level (n = 4) (e) of SHP2 are decreased in cultured SSc fibroblasts. Horizontal scale bar, for all images, 500 μm. All data are presented as median ± s.e.m. The p values are expressed as follows: 0.05 > p > 0.01*; 0.01 > p > 0.001**; p < 0.001***. Significance was determined by Mann–Whitney test. SSc: systemic sclerosis, Healthy: healthy individual, int.: intensity