Increase in pSTAT3+IL17+ cells in leprosy reactions patients.

<p>Flow cytometry analysis of antigen stimulated 48 h culture of PBMC shows increase in pSTAT3 bearing CCR6⁺ cells with intracellular IL-17A in both RR and ENL subjects as compared to matching stable leprosy (a) Representative dot plots from each of RR, BT and ENL, LL leprosy patients (see <a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004592#sec005" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a>). (b) Scatter plots of combined qPCR data from both reaction patients RR and ENL, showing significant positive correlation of <i>STAT3</i> expression (ΔCT) with <i>IL17A</i>, <i>IL17D</i>, <i>IL17C</i> and <i>IL17F</i>. Correlation coefficient (r²) was calculated by Spearman non-parametric correlation test, p< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. p<0.01 = *, p<0.001 = **, Abbreviations as in <a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004592#pntd.0004592.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>.