The infiltration of inflammatory cells was further demonstrated by immunohistochemical analyses for CD8+ T cells and F4/80+ macrophages and the fibroblast marker of α-SMA (Fig. 3C), with more CD8+ T cells (Fig. 3D, p = 0.009) and macrophage (Fig. 3E, p = 0.004) infiltrations in bleomycin model of SSc compared with mouse lung tissues from sham treated mice. Here, CD8A is linked to systemic sclerosis.