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. 2017 Sep 12;67(11):2035–2044. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-314098

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Phenotypic and functional difference of NK cells between chronic HBV-infected patients and HCs. PBMCs were isolated from health individuals and patients with chronic hepatitis B. CD3 and CD56 were used for identify NK cells. (A) The gating strategies of NK cells from PBMCs. (B) The expression levels of PD-1 and CD94 on NK cells were analysed by flow cytometry. (C) NK cells were purified, and messenger RNA expression levels of TGF-β, IL-10, IL-12, IL-18 and T-bet were determined by qRT-PCR. (D and E) NK cells from chronic HBV-infected patients and HCs were purified and stimulated with PHA for 16 hours. The expression and secretion of IL-10 were detected by intracellular cytokine staining and ELISA, respectively. A representative experiment from 35 independent experiments is shown. The error bars represent SEM. *p<0.05. CD94, cluster of differentiation 94; CHB, chronic HBV infection; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; HCs, healthy controls; IL, interleukin; MFI, mean fluorescence intensity; NK, natural killer; PBMCs, peripheral blood mononuclear cells; PD-1, programmed death1-ligand; qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time PCR; TGF-β, transforming growth factor-β.