Fig. 4.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) increased with a higher proportion of CD8⁺PD-1⁺TCF1⁻ terminally exhausted T cells (TCF1⁻Tex^term). a Tregs negatively correlated with the ratios of progenitor exhausted T cells (TCF1⁺Tex^prog) to TCF1⁻Tex^term (n = 21). b Flow cytometry result showed that CD4⁺Foxp3⁺Tregs were significantly increased in the low ratio group (high ratio group: n = 10, low ratio group: n = 11). c Representative contour plots of Foxp3⁺Tregs among CD4⁺ T cells in the high/low TCF1⁺Tex^prog/TCF1⁻Tex^term ratio groups. d, e Representative IHC images of Foxp3 staining in FFPE samples from patients in the high/low ratio groups and quantitative Foxp3 H-score analysis showed that Foxp3 expressed higher in the low ratio group. Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. Spearman’s correlation test was performed for a, and unpaired t tests were performed for (b, e). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. Scale bars: 200 μm for 100× and 50 μm for 400×