Figure 4

Frequency of CD56⁺ NK cells correlates with JSLE disease activity (SLEDAI). Boxplots of frequencies of (a) total NK cells expressed as percentage of all live cells (HC n = 65, Inactive JSLE n = 38, Active JSLE n = 4), (c) perforin⁺ NK cells, and (e) granzyme A⁺ NK cells (HC n = 42, Inactive JSLE n = 33, Active JSLE n = 4) stratified based on SLEDAI score. Active JSLE = SLEDAI > 4, Inactive JSLE = SLEDAI ≤ 4. Boxplots show median ± IQR. p-values calculated using Dunn’s test with Bonferroni correction. Correlations between SLEDAI scores and (b) total NK cell expressed as percentage of live cells (n = 36), (d) perforin⁺ (n = 32), and (f) granzyme A⁺ NK cell frequencies (n = 32). Scatter plots showing correlations in JSLE between lymphocyte counts and (g) CD56⁺ NK cell frequencies expressed as percentage of live cells (n = 42) and NK cells expressing (h) perforin (n = 37) and (i) granzyme A (n = 37), C3 levels and (j) CD56⁺ NK cells as percentage of live (n = 38) and NK cells expressing (k) perforin (n = 33) and (l) granzyme A⁺ (n = 33), dsDNA antibody levels and (m) NK cells as percentage of live (n = 37) and NK cells expressing (n) perforin (n = 33) and (o) granzyme A (n = 33). Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients and their associated p-values are shown.