Fig. 3.

MICA/B and HLA-E bind NKG2 receptors expressed on NK and CD8⁺ T cells. Distribution of (a) NKG2D⁺, (b) NKG2A⁺ and (c) NKG2C⁺ cells on the indicated subsets of human lymphocytes from blood of healthy volunteers (n = 27; mean age 49.9; range, 27–83), analysed by flow cytometry. FACS sequential gating strategies represented in Supplementary Fig. 4. d Human CD8⁺ T cells were stratified according to CD27 and CD28 expression in early- (CD27⁺28⁺), intermediate- (CD27⁺28⁻) and late-differentiated (CD27⁻28) cells, as represented in the flow-cytometry plot. e, f The summary data of the distribution of NKG2A⁺ (e) and NKG2C⁺ (f) cells within early-, intermediate- and late-differentiated CD8⁺ T cells gated as in (d) in the same donors (n = 27; mean age 49.9; range, 27–83). Comparison between groups done with Friedman test with Dunn's correction for multiple comparisons in (e) and (f). The data presented as means ± SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001