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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2015 Mar 1;68(3):264–273. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000000470

Figure 4. Constitutive NK activation in HESN-IDU subjects is not associated with functional exhaustion of innate immune cells but is correlated with plasma levels of IP-10.

Figure 4

(A–B) PBMCs from a representative high-risk needle-sharing HESN-IDU subject were stained with fluorescently conjugated antibodies to NK phenotypic and functional markers following a four-hour incubation in the presence or absence of K562 tumor cells. The frequency of K562-target cell induced (A) CD107a degranulation (x-axis) or IFN-gamma production (y-axis) staining and (B) MIP-1 Beta (x-axis) or TNF-alpha production (y-axis) staining is shown on CD56+/CD3− gated lymphocytes with quadrant gates set based upon “no target” control cells incubated in the absence of target cells. (C–D) Composite graph of the K562-target cell induced (C) CD107a degranulation or IFN-gamma production and (D) MIP-1 Beta or TNF-alpha production on CD56+/CD3− gated NK cells from no-risk control, low-risk NS-IDU and high-risk HESN-IDU subjects as depicted in panel A. (E) Spearman correlation of K562-target cell induced CD107a degranulation or IFN-gamma production with K562-target cell induced MIP-1 Beta or TNF-alpha production. (F) Composite graph of plasma IP-10 levels as measured by Luminex analyisis for low-risk NS-IDU and high-risk HESN-IDU subjects. (G–H) Spearman correlation of plasma IP-10 levels (y-axis) with the percentage of activated (G) NK cells or (H) MDC cells (x-axis) in all HESN-IDU subjects. Statistical analysis carried out as described in Figure 2.