Fig. 3

The expression levels of survivin splice variants in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. a The scheme of survivin splice variants. BIRC5 gene could generate several splice variants. b The reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of PBMCs from healthy controls (HCs) (n = 5) and SSc patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP) (n = 5). The figure shown is representative of the samples. c Relative expression levels of survivin (-WT, -ΔEx3 and -2B) in PBMCs from HCs (n = 5) and SSc patients (n = 5) using real-time PCR. ^*Mann–Whitney U test, p < 0.05. d PBMCs were collected from HCs (n = 4) and SSc patients (n = 3), and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses were performed for the measurement of intracellular survivin expression. The SSc patients were designated as numbers 1, 3 and 5 in Table 2. Stained PBMCs were gated using the forward and side scatters and CD45⁺CD14⁺ cells were analyzed (gray line, normal immunoglobulin G (IgG) control; green line, HC; red line, SSc). Representative images and their mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) are shown. e Estimated survivin-wild type (WT) expression levels of peripheral CD45⁺CD14⁺ cells in HCs (n = 4) and SSc patients (n = 3). Mean ± SEM, ^* t test, p < 0.05