Fig. 5.

Ex vivo cytokine and chemokine secretion of IL-2-stimulated NK cells ± MPA. Absolute NK cell count (left Y-axis, black) in relation to cytokine/chemokine concentration in the supernatant of NK cell culture (right Y-axis, green). An initial decrease in viable cell count was followed by the expansion of IL-2-stimulated NK cells (white bars), which was severely decreased by long-term MPA treatment (red bars). The high secretion of IFN-γ, TNF-α, CXCL8, IL-6, CCL2, CCL4 and CCL5 during IL-2 stimulation (green square, black border) was significantly inhibited by the additional treatment with MPA (green square, red border). Left Y-axis: absolute NK cell count; right Y-axis: cytokine/chemokine concentration with different scaling ranging from 0 to 400,000 pg/ml; X-axis: days of cultivation ±10 µM MPA (n = 10, mean ± SEM, gated on viable CD56⁺CD3⁻ NK cells, p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 indicated as * and **, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test)