The Pronounced Th17 Profile in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) Together with Intracellular Expression of TGFβ and IFNγ Distinguishes SSc Phenotypes

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease where controversy on Th1/Th2 balance dominates. We investigated whether the recently discovered Th17 pattern was present in SSc.Patients were subdivided as having limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc, n = 12) or diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc, n = 24). A further arbitrary subdivision was made between early dcSSc (n = 11) and late dcSSc (n = 13) based upon the duration of disease. As a comparator group 14...