Figure 4.

Ex vivo HBV-specific T cell functional analysis. Cytokine production by HBV-specific and influenza-specific CD8 T cells: (A) representative plots; (B) different patient categories assessed after PBMC stimulation with PMA and Ionomycin (box whisker plots, on the left); CHB patients split according to EI values (right graph). (C) Correlation between cytokine production by the core_18-27-specific CD8 T cells and EI in chronic patients with high (orange dots) and low (blue dots) EI, respectively, and in HBV resolved patients (black dots). (D, E) Cytokine production by PD-1^highCD127^low/- and PD-1⁺CD127⁺ HBV-specific CD8 T cells from CHB patients and from PD-1⁺CD127⁺ CD8 T cells from the different patient categories. (F) Correlation between cytokine production and Bcl-2 (left graph) or TOX (right graph) expression by core_18-27-specific CD8 T cells. Statistics by the Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn’s correction test (B, E) and the Spearman’s correlation test (C, F). CHB, chronic hepatitis B; EI, Exhaustion Index; HBV, hepatitis B virus; NUC RES, NUC resolved patients; PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell; SS, spontaneous seroconversion.