FIG. 5.

Gating scheme used for the identification of specific T cells. Data shown are from cells derived from one representative patient, stimulated with an HIV peptide. Initial gating was performed on small lymphocytes in a forward scatter (FSC)-versus-SSC plot. CD3⁺ events were gated in an SSC-versus-CD3 plot prior to gating on CD3⁺ CD8⁺ and CD3⁺ CD4⁺ events. Then a gate was made for each studied function and their combinations. Only the functional profile of cells gated on CD3⁺ CD8⁺ events is shown, but a similar analysis was also performed on CD3⁺ CD4⁺ cells. For each patient, two different positive controls were included: polyclonal stimulation with a mix of PMA-ionomycin and the control peptide pool CEF. Mean ± SD percentages of positive CD3⁺ CD8⁺ cells for each function were 22.52 ± 6.02 (IL-2), 44.6 ± 16.28 (Mip-1β), 38.6 ± 5.37 (TNF-α), 35.1 ± 4.24 (IFN-γ), and 42.65 ± 3.32 (CD107a/b) for the PMA-ionomycin mixture and 0.97 ± 0.35 (IL-2), 2.26 ± 1.62 (Mip-1β), 1.67 ± 1.17 (TNF-α), 1.1 ± 0.81 (IFN-γ) and 1.3 ± 0.43 (CD107a/b) for the CEF pool.