Fig. 1.

Patients with Candida esophagitis have low and dysfunctional CD4⁺ cell counts with decreased Candida-specific cytokine responses and proliferative capacity.

(a) Absolute CD4⁺ T-cell counts, (b) percentage of PD1⁺ and CD25⁺ CD4⁺ T cells, (c) IFN-γ response of peripheral blood mononuclear cell to staphylococcal enterotoxin B or heat-inactivated Candida albicans, (d) IL-17 response of peripheral blood mononuclear cell to staphylococcal enterotoxin B or heat-inactivated C. albicans, (e) percentage of proliferating (CFSE^dim) cells in the CD4⁺ T-cell population after 7 days stimulation with staphylococcal enterotoxin B or heat-inactivated C. albicans and (f) percentage of proliferating (CFSE^dim) cells in the CD8⁺ T-cell population after 7 days stimulation with staphylococcal enterotoxin B or heat-inactivated C. albicans of patients at diagnosis of Candida esophagitis (ESO), patients with early initiated combination antiretroviral therapy and a viral load less than 50 copies/ml (viral load <50) and healthy donors. Shown are median values + interquartile ranges (Tukey plot). Data (c)–(f) are shown after subtraction of unstimulated controls. Number of ESO/viral load less than 50/healthy donor were n = 37/15/20 (a), n = 33/15/20 (b), n = 18/11/19 (c), n = 12/14/20 (d) and n = 4/8/14 (e and f). ^∗P ≤ 0.05, ^∗∗P ≤ 0.01 and ^∗∗∗∗P ≤ 0.0001 (Mann–Whitney test).