Fig. 9.

T-activated® pp65 and IE-1 CMV antigens stimulate a broad range of CMV-reactive effector cells. Comparative analysis of IFN-γ secreting cells by ELISpot (a) and flow cytometry (b) following stimulation of PBMC with T-activated® pp65 and IE-1 antigens. PBMC (4 replicates each) from six CMV-seropositive healthy donors (median age and range of 39 (22–55) years; 2 male and 4 female) were stimulated with T-activated® pp65 and IE-1 antigens according to the optimized IFN-γ ELISpot (a) and to the protocol of intracellular and surface marker staining and flow cytometry described in the Methods section (b). Bar graphs in (a) depict IFN-γ-dependent SFC per 200,000 PBMC, as before. Bar graphs in (b) represent the number of IFN-γ-expressing CD3⁺CD4⁺ (Th), CD3⁺CD8⁺ (CTL), CD3⁻CD56⁺ (NK) and CD3⁺CD56⁺ (NKT-like) cells per 200,000 lymphocytes. Note that the Y-axis scales in (b) were adjusted for a better resolution of the respective data. Individual age and gender of donors were as follows: d120, 37-year-old male; d172, 55-year-old female; d290, 46-year-old female; d300, 41-year-old female; d343, 24-year-old female; d361, 22-year-old male