Fig. 1.

Frequencies of ex vivo HLA-A*0301 and HLA-B*0801 BCR/ABL-specific T cells. The frequencies of HLA-A*0301/KQSSKALQR (a) and HLA-B*0801/GFKQSSKAL (b) specific CD8⁺ T cells detected in the peripheral blood of CML patients, as well as in healthy individuals and CML patients bearing irrelevant HLA types (non-HLA-A*0301 and/or non-HLA-B*0801) are represented. Tetramer positive cells are expressed as a percentage of CD3⁺CD8⁺ T cells. Bars indicate the mean values for each category. The frequencies of BCR/ABL-specific T cells circulating in the peripheral blood of CML patients are in both the HLA-A*0301 and the HLA-B*0801 group significantly higher than in healthy individuals (P = 0.0025 and 0.0026, respectively, Mann–Whitney U test) or in patients bearing irrelevant HLA types (P < 0.0001, Mann–Whitney U test). N represents the number of samples