Figure 5.

Sarcoidosis CD4+ BAL T cells recognize multiple epitopes of mycobacterial proteins. BAL T cells were stimulated with a panel of 9 mycobacterial peptides and intracellular cytokine staining was performed to measure the number of IFN-γ producing cells. Sarcoidosis 4, 10, and 24 CD4+, BAL-derived T cells were stimulated with all 9 mycobacterial peptides. Not only did these subjects recognize multiple mycobacterial peptides but also recognized multiple epitopes within the proteins. CD4+T cell response was defined as positive when the frequency of recognition was at least twice background fluorescence and greater than 0.5%.