Figure 4. Surface expression of costimulatory molecules and coactivatory/inhibitory receptors in CD8⁺ T cells engineered with TCR of incremental affinities.

(A) Surface expression levels of the TNFR-TNFR ligand pairs (i) CD27-CD70 and (ii) HVEM-BTLA as well as of CD28 and CD8β are shown in steady-state conditions (unstimulated cells). TCR variants are presented in order of increased affinity. Data were obtained from 10 independent experiments. (B) Baseline expression levels of Granzyme B and Perforin in CD8⁺ T cells transduced with TCR variants. Data were obtained from 7 independent experiments. (A and B) Unpaired 2-tailed t test; ***P < 0.001; **P < 0.01; *P < 0.05.