Demographic characteristics and immunophenotypic profile of randomly selected SSc patients, divided according to the presence or absence of serum anti-ERα antibodies, and healthy donors.

n., number. For CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocyte subsets, data were expressed as the percentage of each subset within the CD4+ or CD8+ population considered as 100%. The naive subset is defined as CD45RA+CD62L+ while the remaining cells comprise the memory subsets (CD45RA−CD62L+, central memory subset; CD45RA−CD62L− and CD45RA+CD62L−, effector memory subset) [20]. T regulatory cells (Treg) are defined as CD4+CD25+FoxP3+; activated Treg (aTreg) are defined as CD4+CD45RA−FoxP3brightCD25bright[21]. Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) was calculated as the ratio between Bcl-2 mAb mean and negative control mean. The Kruskal Wallis test and Dunn’s multiple comparison test were used for statistical analysis.*P**Pvs. healthy donors.