Fig. 4.

Impact of delayed processing on the magnitude of cervical T cell IFN-γ responses to PMA/Ionomycin or CEF peptides. Cervical CD8⁺ (top panels) and CD4⁺ (bottom panels) T cells were stimulated with PMA/Ionomycin (left panels) or CEF peptides (right panels) immediately (ex vivo) or after delayed processing at 37 °C, 4 °C or room temperature. Each bar represents the median and IQR net percentage CD8 or CD4 T cells producing IFN-γ in response to PMA or CEF peptides in cytobrush samples with > 100 CD3⁺ events. Kruskal–Wallis tests were used for non-parametric comparison of variation between groups, with Dunn's post test applied to test for the effect of multiple comparisons. P-values < 0.05 were considered significant.