Fig. 7

Effects of d-glucose and AGEs on differentiation of splenic CD4⁺ T cells in vitro. Splenocytes were cultured with different concentrations of d-glucose and d-mannitol and the percentages of Th17 (A), Treg cells (B), and Tfh cells (C) were analyzed by flow cytometry. D The AGEs MFI in splenic Tfh cells from both EAMG rats and EAMG rats with DM were analyzed by flow cytometry. Then splenocytes were cultured with AGE and the percentages of Th17 (E) and Treg (F) were analyzed by flow cytometry. G Splenocytes were treated with different concentrations of AGEs and Tfh cells were examined by flow cytometry. Data were from two independent experiments and expressed as mean ± SEM. The significance of differences was assessed by the Unpaired Student’s t test or ANOVA, followed by Least Significant Difference (LSD) as a post-hoc test. ns means not significant, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001