Figure 2.

Long exposure to SARS-CoV-2 proteins reduces the T lymphocytes proliferative ability in vitro.PBMCs from healthy volunteers were labelled with CFSE, then cells were exposed or not (open circle) to S, N and P proteins for 5 days (solid black square) or multiple stimulations (Figure 1A) until 5 days (solid red triangle). Cells were also stimulated or not (open triangle) with Pokeweed (PWD, 2.5 μg/mL). (A) Percentage of proliferative CD4⁺ populations (CFSE^dim), measured by flow cytometry, are shown (left panel) (∗, p < 0.05, Mann-Whitney t-test; ∗∗, p < 0.01, one-way ANOVA test), n = 5. A representative histogram overlay is shown (right panel). (B) Percentage of proliferative CD8⁺ populations, measured by flow cytometry, are shown (left panel) (∗, p < 0.05, Mann-Whitney t test; ∗∗, p < 0.01, one-way ANOVA test), n = 5. A representative histogram overlay is shown (right panel).