Fig 2. Mature activated memory B cells of HCV donors show low CD86 expression and have limited response to BCR stimulation in HCV RF+ donors.

(A-B) Representative and summary for CD86 expression in whole blood of uninfected donors (UD ▄ n = 23), HCV Rheumatoid Factor negative (HCV RF-, ● n = 23) and HCV Rheumatoid Factor positive (HCV RF+, ▼ n = 20). (C-D) Representative and summary data of CD86 ex vivo experiments, where peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured for 3 days in medium alone, anti IgG F(ab’)² fragment (4ug/mL), CpG (1ug/mL), R848 (Iug/mL) and cells were stained for B cell subset markers and CD86. UD(▄, n = 15), HCV RF- (●, n = 14), HCV RF+ (▼, n = 15). Kruskal- Wallis was used to analyzed differences among the three groups (*) of donors and Mann-Whitney U test (p≤0.05) was used between two groups of donors.