Fig. 2.

Analysis of natural killer (NK) cells in the combination therapy group (n = 7) and nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) group (n = 33). (a,b) Comparison of the proportion of CD56^bright NK cells and CD56^dim NK cells in paired samples in the combination group between baseline (BL) and end of pegylated interferon‐alpha (peg‐IFN‐α) treatment (EOT), respectively. (c,d) Comparison of the proportion of CD56^bright NK cells and CD56^dim NK cells in the combination and NA groups during treatment, respectively. (e,f) Absolute number of CD56^bright NK and CD56^dim NK cells at baseline and week 48 between the two groups, respectively. Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (s.e.m.). *P < 0·05, **P < 0·01, ***P < 0·001.