Fig. 2

Th17-, Treg cells and Th17/Treg ratio before and after treatment of intervertebral disc herniation

Absolute number of Th17 and Treg cells and the Th17/Treg cell ratio in the acute stage of disease (“acute”) and after recovery (“outcome”) are displayed

The grey boxplot on the left represents the results in the acute stage of intervertebral disk herniation (IVDH) before treatment. The right-sided boxplot in light blue represents the results of the final examination, which took place on average 14 months after surgery. At both time points the same 26 dogs with IVDH were analyzed. Boxplots were used for the graphical representation. Each boxplot displays the 25% and 75% quantile and the median

a) Absolute number of stimulated Th17 cells: Significant differences in Th17 cell levels between the time points “acute” and “outcome” (p = 0.0106)

b) Absolute number of Treg cells: Significant differences in Treg cell levels between the time points “acute” and “outcome” (p < 0.0001)

c) Th17/Treg ratio: No significant differences between the time points “acute” and “outcome” (p = 0.1181). Every measurement is shown as a single plot. At the time point “outcome” two ratios (75.2 and 227.9) differed strongly from the others