Fig. 2: Reactive patients have a larger and more diverse putatively peanut-specific CD4+ T cell repertoire.
(A) The frequency of activated, CD154+ T cells was increased in peanut-stimulated PBMC cultures as compared to unstimulated cultures in reactive as well as hyporeactive patients (n=20 per group; *** P < 0.001, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test). However, the frequency of CD154+ T cells in peanut-stimulated cultures (* P < 0.05, Mann Whitney test), as well as the stimulation index (** P < 0.01, Mann Whitney test), was higher in reactive patients. (B) The frequency of ps-CDR3 counts was higher in reactive than hyporeactive individuals (n=10 per group; ** P < 0.01, Mann Whitney test). (C) The frequency of CD154+ T cells in peanut-stimulated cultures was strongly correlated with that of ps-CDR3 counts in corresponding patients (P < 0.001, Spearman’s p). (D) The numbers of unique private and public ps-CDR3s per patient were higher in the reactive group (* P < 0.05, unpaired t-test with Welch’s correction). (E) Numbers of private and public ps-CDR3s in the clinical groups.