Fig. 1
From: IL-39 promotes chronic graft-versus-host disease by increasing T and B Cell pathogenicity
IL-39 aggravates the development of murine cGVHD. BALB/c mice were hydrodynamically injected with minicircles or IL-39 plasmids (n = 6 per group). Three days after HGT, irradiated BALB/c recipients were infused with 1 × 107 bone marrow cells and 1 × 106 splenocytes from C57BL/6 mice, to establish a scleroderma-like cGVHD model. IL-39 expression in the liver 7 days after HGT treatment was detected by immunohistochemistry (A) and western blotting (C). IL-39 levels in the serum were detected weekly using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (B). Representative histopathological images and pathology scores of the skin, intestine, and Masson’s trichrome staining are shown (D). Body weights and GVHD scores in scleroderma-like mice are shown (F). Three days after HGT, irradiated recipients were infused with 5 × 106 bone marrow cells and 4 × 107 CD25− splenocytes from DBA/2 mice to establish a lupus-like cGVHD mouse model. Representative histopathological images and pathology scores of the skin, liver, intestine, kidney, and lung are shown (E). Body weights and urine protein levels in lupus-like mice are shown (G). The data are representative of at least three independent experiments. Values are presented as mean ± SD. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001