Fig. 3

Gut microbiota in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with different disease severity and treatments. (a) Histogram of the Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) scores for different abundant genera in patients with mild/moderate (n = 10) and severe (n = 5) SLE. Red, enriched in patients with severe SLE; (b) Boxplot representing the relative abundances of the only significantly elevated genus in the severe SLE group; (c) Histogram of the LDA scores for different abundant genera in azathioprine-treated (AZA+, n = 11) and untreated (AZA-, n = 4) groups. Green, enriched in AZA- group; Red, enriched in AZA + group; (d) Boxplots representing the relative abundances of significantly reduced genera in AZA + group, (e) Histogram of the LDA scores for different abundant genera in hydroxychloroquine-treated (HCQ+, n = 12) and untreated (HCQ-, n = 3) groups. Red, enriched in HCQ- group; (f) Boxplots representing the relative abundances of significantly affected genus in HCQ + and HCQ- groups; (g) Histogram of the LDA scores for different abundant genera in cyclophosphamide-treated (CYC+, n = 2) and untreated (CYC-, n = 13) groups. Green, enriched in CYC- group; Red, enriched in CYC + group; (h) Boxplots representing the relative abundances of significantly affected genera among CYC + and CYC- groups; (i) Boxplots representing the relative abundances of significantly affected genera among groups receiving low (≤ 10 mg/day) and high (˃10 mg/day) prednisolone (PRED) doses. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney test. p < 0.05 was significant. Error bars represent the standard deviation