Fig. 3.

Patients with PR show enhanced frequencies of CD8 T cells with CD45RA⁺CCR7⁻ and CD95⁺CD69⁻ phenotypes. (a) Density plots of all data points (ALL: cells from 71 patients, 3 time points each) and split up according to BOR and time points. Plot with 9 clusters (lower left) is the result of gradients of density plots and iterative testing (see Materials and Methods for details). Individual clusters were assessed for significant differences between BOR groups and time points, and highlighted by red lines (see also Additional file 1: Figure S3A). (b) Density plots of individual markers and (c) expressions of markers within individual clusters according to relative intensities; clusters showing different abundance (from panel A) are highlighted by red rectangles. (d) Frequencies of CD8 T cells positive for single markers or combinations of two markers. Markers used are listed in Additional file 1: Table S2, panel 2. Statistically significant differences between BOR groups and time points were determined using Mann–Whitney U test. * p < 0.05