Figure 1

Expression of CD11a and methylation status of the CD11a promoter region in CD4⁺T cells from patients with SSc. (A and B) Elevated CD11a (A) mRNA and (B) protein expression in CD4⁺ T cells from patients with SSc. The methylation pattern of CD11a promoter region in CD4⁺ T cells from 15 healthy controls (C) and 18 SSc patients (D). (E) The average methylation status of the 23 CG pairs was found to be significantly lower in SSc CD4⁺ T cells than in healthy controls. (F) The average methylation levels of the Alu element were also significantly lower in SSc CD4⁺ T cells than in healthy controls. (G and H) The average DNA methylation levels of the CD11a promoter were inversely correlated with the (G) relative mRNA level and (H) disease activity (Valentini scleroderma disease activity index; SDAI) in patients with SSc. (I) There was a significant positive correlation between individual relative CD11a mRNA expression levels (X-axis) and SDAI (Y-axis) in SSc patients.