Fig. 3

The increase of EGR2 expression in MRL-lpr lupus CD4⁺ T cells accompanies with increased T cell activation following disease development. The freshly-prepared splenocytes from 5-week-old and 15-week-old MRL an MRL-lpr mice were stained with cell surface marker CD4 and CD44, and then subjected to intracellular flow stain of EGR2. (a) The stained splenocytes were gated at CD4⁺EGR2⁺ cells to analyze the expression of CD44 in CD4⁺EGR2⁺ cells. The representative histogram plots show CD44 expression in gated CD4⁺EGR2⁺ cells of MRL-lpr and control MRL mice at different age. (b & c) The summary graphs show the percentage of CD44 expressing cells (CD44⁺/ CD4⁺EGR2⁺, b) and CD44 expression intensity (MFI, c) in gated CD4⁺EGR2⁺ cells. Graphs show means ± SEM (n ≥ 4). (d) The stained splenocytes were gated at CD4⁺ cells to analyze the expression of CD44 in CD4⁺ T cells. The representative histogram plots show CD44 expression in gated CD4⁺ cells of MRL-lpr and control MRL mice at different age. (e & f) The summary graphs show the percentage of CD44 expressing cells (CD44⁺/ CD4⁺, e) and CD44 expression intensity (f) in gated CD4⁺ cells. Graphs show means ± SEM (n ≥ 4). One-way ANOVA with Tukey- Kramer all pair’s comparisons were performed for statistical analysis. The means of groups that were not connected with the same letter were significantly different