Fig. 4.

The stimulatory capacity of DCs derived from individuals before and following HCV infection. The stimulatory capacity of DCs was determined before and >300 days following HCV infection and also during acute infection in subject 18. Patients S7, S9, S13, S17 and S21 developed persistent infection (A) while patients S18 and S63 spontaneously cleared virus (B). Following irradiation, matured DCs at increasing concentrations were co-cultured with allogeneic PBMC (2 × 10⁵). T-cell proliferation was determined on day 6 of culture following 18 h incubation with ³H Thymidine (c.p.m. = counts per minute). The results are expressed as mean ± SD of wells in triplicates. The same responder PBMCs from a healthy individual were used in all experiments.