Figure 5.

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are more sensitive to immunosuppressive drugs than non-MAIT T cells. (A) Representative flow cytometry histograms from one healthy donor showing the CFSE expression in MAIT cells and CD3⁺CD161^dim/negTCRVα7.2^dim/neg (non-MAIT) CD8⁺ T cells. CFSE-labeled peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy controls were stimulated with OKT-3 in the absence of presence of indicated concentrations of (B) cyclosporine A (CsA) (n = 7) and (C) sirolimus (Sir) (n = 8). After 5 days of culture, cells were harvested and stained for flow cytometry. Data were acquired for MAIT cells and non-MAIT CD8⁺ T cells and presented as the percentage of CFSE^low cells after stimulation with OKT-3 only. (D,E) Same as in (B,C), but comparisons in proliferation were made between MAIT cells and CD8⁺CD161^highTCRVα7.2⁻ T cells (n = 7 and 8, respectively). Interleaved bars show median and the upper range of paired samples. Comparisons between paired samples were made using the Wilcoxon test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.