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. 2021 Oct 26;71(11):2300–2312. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-324646

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Functional and phenotypical characteristics of HBV core18-specific and HBV pol455-specific CD8+ T cells in patients with CHB. HBV-specific CD8+ T cell responses following 10-day in vitro stimulation with core18 or pol455 peptides in HLA-A*02 positive patients with CHB. (A) HBV-specific IFN-γ+ CD8+ T cell responses categorised based on HBsAg or HBcrAg levels. (B) Enriched ex vivo frequencies of naïve, TCM, TEM and TEMRA populations and expression of PD-1, KLRG1, CD39, Eomes, Tbet, PD-1 CD127 and TCF1 by HBV core18 and pol455-specific CD8+ T cells. (C) Radar plot depicting the mean percentage of ex vivo HBV core18 and pol455-specific CD8+ T cell expressing different markers obtained from patients with CHB categorised based on HBsAg and HBcrAg levels. Statistical significance was tested by Wilcoxon test and Mann-Whitney test for non-parametric data and by unpaired t-test for parametric data (A–C). ns, not significant; *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001. CHB, chronic hepatitis B; DCM, dead cell marker; FSC, forward scatter; HBcrAg, hepatitis B core-related antigen; HBsAg, hepatitis B surface antigen; HLA, human leukocyte antigen; IFN, interferon; PD-1, programmed cell death protein 1; pol, polymerase; SSC, side scatter; TCF1, transcription factor 1; TCM, central memory T cell; TEM, effector memory T cell; TEMRA, terminally differentiated effector memory T cell; TNF, tumour necrosis factor;.