This analysis revealed that in SSc the percentage of circulating Tang cells was positively correlated with the levels of VEGF (Spearman’s rho = 0.51, p = 0.001) and MMP-9 (Spearman’s rho = 0.37, p = 0.02) (Fig 6A and 6C), but not with the levels of IL-8 and IL-17 (Fig 6E and 6G). Here, MMP9 is linked to systemic sclerosis.