Fig. 1.

a Gating schema for bulk NK cells. As shown in 1, lymphocytes were gated from cells debris using side scatter (SSC) versus forward scatter (FSC). NK cells were selected out from a dumping channel consisting of B cells, T cells, monocyte, and dead cells (2). The NK cells were then displayed according to the expression of CD56 and CD16 (3). b Gating schema for purified NK cells: magnetic sorted NK cells were similarly gated and NK cells displayed as described in a. Magnetic purification resulted in a significant increase in the total NK subset and ranged from 90 to 95%. c Comparison of total NK cells. d CD56⁺/CD16^-, CD56⁺/CD16⁺, and CD56^-/CD16⁺ NK cell subsets were identified and compared between HIV-positive (HIV+) and HIV-negative (HIV-) participants. A significant increase was observed in HIV+ for CD56^-/CD16⁺ expression. PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cells. * p = 0.02. ns, not significant (p < 0.05).