Fig. 6.

Decreased IL-7 receptor α (CD127) levels in cancer patients. The expression of IL-7Rα in naïve (p = 0.0455, one-way ANOVA) (a) T cells was significantly lower in heavy-treated patients than in normal patients. Total naïve cells were further separated into CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ subpopulations. The CD127 expression in CD4⁺ naïve cells decreased (b), but it increased in CD8⁺ naïve cells in the heavy-treated patients (c). The expression of CD127 in total (d), CD4⁺ (e), and CD8⁺ (f) effector memory cells decreased dramatically in the heavy-treated patients. The amount of CMV replication significantly increased in heavy-treated group (p = 0.0009, Kruskal–Wallis test) (g).The percentages of CD127 expression in lymphocytes were no differences between three groups (h). A regression analysis of IL-7Rα expression versus the median of iCMV expression cells in naïve T cells from cancer patients at the heavy-treated stage was carried out (p = 0.005, Pearson correlation analysis) (i). The asterisks indicate statistically significant differences between the normal and heavy-treated groups (*p < 0.05). N normal, TN treatment-naive, HT heavy-treated, and iCMV intracellular CMV