Fig. 4

Identification and proportion of excessive B cell differentiation. a Human peripheral blood CD19+CD20+ B cells were stained with CD27 and IgD and separated into four phenotypes: CD27⁻IgD⁻, IgM+ unswitched memory (CD27⁺IgD⁺), class-switched memory (CD27⁺IgD⁻), and naive (CD27⁻IgD⁺) B cells, as indicated by the four quadrants. Dot plots show representative data from healthy control subjects (n = 15, top), AAV patients without excessive B cell differentiation (bottom left), and AAV patients with excessive B cell differentiation (bottom middle and right). b Proportions of AAV patients with (grey) and without (black) excessive B cell differentiation. c Changes in BVAS after 6 months of induction therapy in patients with and without excessive B cell differentiation. Data are mean ± SD of BVAS in each group. *p < 0.01 according to paired Student’s t test. d Rates of remission in BVAS in patients with and without excessive B cell differentiation. Data show the median rate of improvement in BVAS in each group. *p < 0.01 according to Fisher’s exact test