Fig. 2

Western blot analysis of the autophagy marker LC3-II in freshly isolated T cells from pSS patients and from HC, and correlation between LC3-II levels and clinical index scores. a Blots shown are representative of independent experiments carried out in T cells from healthy controls (HC; n = 30) and from primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) patients (n = 30). Quantification of LC3-II levels relative to β-actin in normal and pSS T cells is also shown. Data are represented as box plots (white and grey box plots for HC and pSS patients, respectively) displaying medians, 25th, and 75th percentiles as boxes, and 10th and 90th percentiles as whiskers. b–d LC3-II levels positively correlate with SSDAI, ESSDAI, and SSDDI scores. The rho (r) and p values were determined using the Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. Solid lines represent best fits as estimated by linear regression analysis. ESSDAI EULAR Sjögren’s syndrome disease activity index, SSDAI Sjögren’s syndrome disease activity index, SSDDI Sjögren’s syndrome disease damage index