Figure 4

IRAK4 increases hippocampal Jak-STAT pathway in hippocampus of lupus-prone mice. (A) RNA was extracted from 10 month-old MRL and MRL-IRAK4-KD hippocampi after brain perfusion and sequenced by RNA-seq (Whitehead Institute). 3114 filtered genes with p value < 0.05 between MRL and MRL-IRAK4-KD groups (n = 4/group) were used for subsequent pathway analysis using pathfindR. Fold enrichment was reported for each pathway. (B) Cytokine levels of sera from 10 month-old female MRL, MRL-IRAK4-KD, C57BL/6, and IRAK4-KD mice. Data are shown as mean +/− SEM. Each dot represents one mouse. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 (one-way ANOVA). (C) Log₂ fold change difference of all chemokines detected by RNA-seq [from (A)] between MRL and MRL-IRAK4-KD were analyzed; the most significant are shown. (D) Individual mRNA Ccl21 isoforms (b, c, and d), (E) Ccl2 mRNA expression in the hippocampus, (F) CCL21 and (G) CCL2 levels of sera from 10 month-old MRL, MRL-IRAK4-KD and control mice were measured by ELISA. Each dot represents one mouse. Data are shown as mean + / − SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 (one-way ANOVA).