PKM and systemic lupus erythematosus: To understand how microglia respond to the pathological PKM2 in the hippocampus of lupus mice, we calculated the percentage and phenotype of microglia in the hippocampus of two group mice by flow cytometry; the experimental procedure is shown in Additional file 1: Fig. S5A and B. Results showed that the microglia population (CD45lowCD11b+) in MRL/lpr mice was significantly higher than that of control mice (16.1 ± 1.63% vs. 7.84 ± 0.23%, P ≤ 0.001, Fig. 5A).