Figure 4.

CD56^dimNKG2A⁺KIR⁻ NK cells of both PTLD and IM patients exhibited comparable cytotoxic degranulation in response to EBV-infected B cells. PBMCs from 16 IM patients at the 12 months recovery time point and PBMCs from 13 PTLD patients at the 24 months recovery time point were stimulated with IL-2 overnight prior to co-culture with the HLA class I negative EBV-infected B cell line LCL721.221 on the next day at effector to target ratio of 10:1 for 6 h. Frequencies of cells with CD107a surface expression in the CD56^dimNKG2A⁺KIR⁻ and CD56^dimNKG2A⁻KIR⁺ NK cell subsets in 16 IM patients and 13 PTLD patients were assessed by flow cytometry at the end of the co-culture. Every line represents 1 individual. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank tests were applied to compare data from one group. **p ≤ 0.01.