Fig 4.

Maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) from healthy volunteers (Ctrl), recovered hepatitis C virus (HCV) [HCV polymerase chain reaction (PCR)^–] and chronic (HCV PCR⁺) HCV patients. Monocytes were differentiated into immature DCs (iDCs) with granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating growth factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin (IL)-4, and matured with a cocktail of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, IL-6, IL-1β and prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂). The change in gene expression of CD80 (a), CD83 (b) and CD40 (c) is calculated in comparison to the values of the Ctrl monocytes. Results are shown as median values and interquartile range. Significant difference is shown as *P < 0·05; **P < 0·01; ***P < 0·001.