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. 2022 Jun 27;23(8):e54133. doi: 10.15252/embr.202154133

Figure 1. NK cell degranulation is associated with increased TRAIL surface expression after co‐incubation with autologous HIV‐1‐infected CD4 T cells.

Figure 1

Primary human NK cells (n = 19 different donors per condition) were co‐incubated with either no target cells (NK(−)), autologous CD4 T cells (Mock), or enriched in vitro HIV‐1‐infected (NL4‐3) CD4 T cells (HIV) at an effector:target cell ratio of 1:2. NK cell degranulation was quantified by measuring CD107a surface expression using flow cytometry.
  1. Representative histograms (overlay) displaying CD107a expression on NK cells after culture with the described culture conditions (NK(−), Mock, HIV). For the HIV‐1 co‐culture condition, subsequent analyses of antigen expression were conducted by gating non‐responsive (CD107a−) and responsive (CD107a+) NK cell subsets.
  2. Relative frequency of CD107a+ NK cells (y‐axis) after culture in the described conditions (x‐axis) (n = 19 different donors).
  3. HIV‐specific response of bulk NK cells displayed as percentage points (p.p.) CD107a+ NK cells after normalization to mock CD4 T cells (y‐axis) (n = 19 different donors).
  4. Summary table showing numeric results of the 327 surface antigens analyzed. A total of 48 surface molecules showed statistically significant intra‐donor differences > 5 p.p. in expression between CD107a+ and CD107a− NK cells after exposure to HIV‐1‐infected CD4 T cells (HIV).
  5. Representative histograms (overlay) showing TRAIL surface expression as fluorescence intensity on NK cells after co‐incubation with HIV‐1‐infected CD4 T cells. Histograms show TRAIL expression for CD107a+ and CD107a− NK cell subsets (solid lines) as well as their corresponding FMO controls (dotted lines). Gate defining TRAIL+ cells is indicated as well.
  6. Left panel: Relative frequency of TRAIL+ cells (y‐axis) of CD107a+ and CD107a− NK cell subsets (x‐axis) after co‐incubation with HIV‐1‐infected CD4 T cells. Right panel: Difference in relative frequency of TRAIL+ cells (y‐axis) between CD107a+ and CD107a− cells displayed as p.p. (n = 19 different donors).
  7. Left panel: TRAIL surface expression (y‐axis) of CD107a+ and CD107a− NK cell subsets (x‐axis) after co‐incubation with HIV‐1‐infected CD4 T cells displayed as median fluorescence intensity. Right panel: Differences in TRAIL surface expression (y‐axis) between CD107a+ and CD107a− cells displayed as fold difference (n = 19 different donors).
Data information: Wilcoxon signed‐rank test. Adjustment for multiplicity: Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) (D; F, left panel); Bonferroni (F, right panel; G). Box plots represent the median and 25%/75% percentile. Whiskers indicate the minimum and maximum data points. Lines connecting CD107a− and CD107a+ cells refer to measured values of the same donor.

Source data are available online for this figure.