Unsupervised clustering of AD patients and healthy controls across all
principal components of the blood flow cytometry marker frequencies (%) by
k-means. In AD, the frequencies of different markers defined three meaningful
age-clusters, aligning along a spectrum. While infants (pink ellipse) clustered
on the far left, and adults (green ellipse) on the right, children and
adolescents (blue ellipse) clustered together between the other age cohorts. The
markers that best distinguished between clusters appear in the boxes between two
cohorts (colors of markers parallel the colors of the relative age group).
Arrows designate elevated frequencies of a given marker among the specific age
group. In healthy controls, clusters did not clearly align patients along an age
spectrum. CLA, Cutaneous lymphocyte antigen; ICOS, Inducible co-stimulator
molecule; Tregs, T-regulatory cells.