Fig. 1

The expression level of MBD4 and its correlation with SLEDAI scores. a Comparison between the MBD4 mRNA expression levels in CD4⁺ T cells from SLE patients and healthy controls. b, c Comparison of MBD4 protein expression levels between the CD4⁺ T cells from SLE patients and healthy controls. Representative results of western blot are shown in (b), and quantitative analysis of the band intensities normalized to β-actin is shown in (c). d SLEDAI is short for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index. We can assess the severity of the disease according to the scores. MBD4 mRNA expression levels in the CD4⁺ T cells of SLE patients were negatively correlated with SLEDAI scores (r ² = 0.2745, P < 0.01). Horizontal bars represent the mean ± SEM. **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05