Epstein-Barr virus lytic infection promotes activation of Toll-like receptor 8 innate immune response in systemic sclerosis monocytes

Table 1 Clinical and demographic characteristics of the subjects enrolled in the study

	dcSSc*	HD
Number of subjects, n	53	34
Age in years, mean ± SE (range)	44 ± 1.8 (23–71)	41 ± 2.7 (23–65)
Female, %	96	94
mRSS**, mean ± SE	17 ± 0.7	–
Monocytes infected with recombinant EBV (qPCR, Western blot and immunofluorescence staining experiments), n	14	8
Monocytes freshly isolated (RT-PCR for DNA, qPCR, Western blot and immunostaining experiments), n	8	6
PBMCs (FACS analysis experiments), n	13	12
Skin biopsies (immunostaining experiments), n	18	8

*Inclusion criteria: disease duration <5 years; patients naïve for immunosuppressive therapy (IT) or >6 months free of IT
dcSSc diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis, EBV Epstein-Barr virus, HD healthy donor, mRSS modified Rodnan Skin Score, PBMC peripheral blood mononuclear cell, qPCR quantitative polymerase chain reaction, RT-PCR real-time polymerase chain reaction, SE standard error

ISSN: 1478-6362