Fig 2: Circulating IL-22 levels in patients with AF. (A) Plasma IL-22 levels in non-AF donor, paroxysmal AF, persistent AF and permanent AF groups. (B) Plasma TGF-β1 levels in each AF group. (C) Correlation between plasma IL-22 levels and plasma TGF-β1 levels in patients with AF. **P<0.01. AF, atrial fibrillation; IL, interleukin; TGF-β1, transforming growth factor-β1.

Fig 3: Atrial IL-22 expression in patients with pmAF. (A) IL-10R2, IL-22R1 and IL-22 expression in both the LA and RA of the SR and pmAF patient groups. (B) Atrial collagen volume in the LA and RA in the two groups were quantified by Image J softwore after magnification by 400 by a light microscope. (C) Correlation between atrial IL-22 and atrial collagen area. (D) TGF-β1, (E) collagen I and (F) collagen III mRNA expression in the LA and RA of each group of all AF patients. Correlation between atrial (G) TGF-β1, (H) collagen I and (I) collagen III mRNA expression and atrial IL-22 expression. *P<0.05 vs. the SR group. AF, atrial fibrillation; SR, sinus rhythm; pmAF, permanent atrial fibrillation; IL, interleukin; LA, left atrium; RA, right atrium; Col I, collagen I; Col III, collagen III; TGF-β1, transforming growth factor-β1.