Fig. 4

Analysis of ER-dependent signaling pathways in T cells from SLE patients. a–d A panel of phosphoproteins was measured using the Bio-Plex Multiplex Phosphoprotein Assay in T cell lysates from randomly selected SLE patients with SLEDAI-2K <6 and ≥6 (n = 5 for group), arbitrarily chosen as representative of the whole series, after cell treatment with IVIG, E2, anti-ERα Abs, and E2 plus anti-ERα Abs (see the “Methods” section for details). The fluorescence intensity (FI) of a phospho (p)-ERK, b p-JNK, c p-Akt, and d p-NF-kB was measured and data are presented as mean ± SD. *p < 0.01 versus untreated cells. e Activation of ER with the abovementioned treatments was antagonized by addition of 10-fold molar excess of the high-affinity estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182,780 in T cells from patients with SLEDAI-2K scores ≥6. Data are presented as mean ± SD. ^# p < 0.05 versus E2 plus anti-ERα Abs