Figure 3

Effects of ATRA on systemic inflammatory responses in CIA rats. (a) Rat serum concentrations of IL-6, IL-17, TNF-α and IL-10 were quantified via ELISA (N ≥ 10 per group). (b) The proportions of CD4⁺CD25⁺FoxP3⁺ Tregs and CD4⁺IL-17A⁺ Th17 cells detected by flow cytometric analysis are represented as the mean ± SD (N = 3 per group). Representative images of flow cytometric analysis of the CD4⁺CD25⁺FoxP3⁺ Treg cell (c) and CD4⁺IL-17A⁺ Th17 cell (d) proportions in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of rats. Mean fluorescence intensity of FoxP3 (e) and IL-17A (f) at single cell levels. Bars, SD; ^*P < 0. 05, ^**P < 0. 01; ^***P < 0.001 versus Blank; ^#P < 0. 05, ^##P < 0. 01; ^###P < 0.001 versus Control.