Figure 1.

Reduced frequency and function of peripheral CD56^dim NK cells from NAFLD patients. (A) Mass cytometry gating scheme used to identify the peripheral blood immune cell subsets investigated here. Arrows indicate the gating sequence. (B) Summary of the frequency of the indicated immune cell populations isolated from healthy volunteers (HVs) (n = 13) and NAFLD patients with F0–2 (n = 27) or F3–4 (n = 15). (C) Percentage CD56^bright and CD56^dim NK cells among total peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HVs (n = 13) and NAFLD patients with F0–2 (n = 27) or F3–4 (n = 15). (D) Representative flow cytometry plots of CD56^bright and CD56^dim NK cells producing IFN-γ or expressing CD107a. (E) Quantification of IFN-γ-producing or CD107a-expressing CD56^bright and CD56^dim NK cells from NAFLD patients (n = 6) and HVs (n = 6) after incubation in vitro in the presence or absence (un) of IL-12 plus IL-18. Data in (B,C,E) are presented as the mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 by the Mann–Whitney U-test. F0–2, fibrosis stage 0, 1, or 2; F3–4, fibrosis stage 3 or 4; HV, healthy volunteer; mDC1s, type 1 myeloid dendritic cells; Mono, monocytes; MSI, median signal intensity; NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; NK, natural killer; pDCs, plasmacytoid dendritic cells. ****P < 0.0001 by the Mann-Whitney U-test.