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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Hepatology. 2011 Aug 24;54(5):1559–1569. doi: 10.1002/hep.24556

Figure 5.

Figure 5

The NKG2A-negative NK cell subset shows enhanced response to PEG-IFN-α in vitro.

IFN-α receptor expression is increased in NKG2Aneg NK cells relative to their NKG2Apos counterparts (A). Staining for flow cytometric analysis was performed on 5 chronic HCV patients. NK cells were sort-purified based on their expression NKG2A following the gating strategy shown (B). Gene responses were assessed using real-time RT-PCR following 4-hour in vitro stimulation with PEG-IFN-α (100ng/ml). Exogenous IFN-α induced mRNA levels of the antiviral gene interferon-γ–inducible protein-10 (IP-10) to a much greater extent in the NKG2A-negative fraction (C and D). TRAIL induction was statistically lower in NKG2A-positive cells (E and F).