Effect of Rituximab therapy on the apoptosis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Copyright information:Taken from "Clinical and immunological effects of Rituximab in patients with lupus nephritis refractory to conventional therapy: a pilot study"Arthritis Research & Therapy 2006;8(3):R83-R83.Published online 5 May 2006PMCID:PMC1526618. Freshly isolated PBMNCs from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were fixed, stained using the TUNEL technique, and analyzed by flow cytometry before (day 0), and at days 30 and 90 of Rituximab therapy. Data from all samples studied are shown in , and representative histograms of flow cytometry analysis are shown in . The arithmetic mean is indicated with a horizontal line and the standard deviation with a vertical line. Numbers in (b) correspond to the percent of positive cells.