Figure 2.

The suppressive activity of Treg cells before and after the treatment in the experimental group; (a) the suppressive ability for CD4⁺ T cells; (b) the suppressive ability for CD8⁺ T cells. The pretreatment baseline levels of Treg cells suppression was significantly lower for CD4⁺ cells and CD8⁺ cells than those in the healthy controls (6.87 ± 1.24% versus 11.28 ± 1.60%, P < 0.001; 6.86 ± 0.95% versus 10.93 ± 2.04%, P < 0.005). Following the rapamycin treatment, the suppression for CD4⁺ cells (9.15 ± 0.64%, P = 0.007) and CD8⁺ cells (8.89 ± 0.73%, P = 0.001) was stronger than that before the treatment.