Figure 3.

Impaired responsiveness of mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells early after transplantation. (A) Representative flow cytometry plots from the same patient sample showing the gating strategies for IFN-γ, granzyme B (GrzB), and perforin in MAIT cells. Intracellular expression of (B) IFN-γ, (D) GrzB, and (F) perforin in MAIT cells from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients in the absence (unstim) or presence of stimulation with Escherichia coli (n = 7). Levels of (C) IFN-γ and (E) GrzB in the supernatants from the same experiments as in (B,D) as analyzed by ELISA (n = 7). (G) Median fluorescence intensity (MFI) of perforin expression in MAIT cells (n = 7). Data from healthy controls (HC) are shown to the right of the dotted line [(B–G) n = 17]. Horizontal lines indicate median values. Wilcoxon’s test was used for comparisons between paired unstimulated and stimulated samples, as well as between paired patient samples from different time points. Comparisons between patient samples and healthy controls were made using Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s post-test. ns, not significant.