HLA-A2 and B35 Restricted Hantaan Virus Nucleoprotein CD8+ T-Cell Epitope-Specific Immune Response Correlates with Milder Disease in Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome
Figure 6
The proliferation capacity of HTNV nucleoprotein epitope-specific CD8+ T cells at acute stage of HFRS.
(A) The PBMCs of four HLA-A2+ patients with different severities stimulated with the epitope aa129–aa137 were detected. FACS contour plots were gated on CD3+ CD8+ cells. The proliferative potential of the epitope-specific CD8+ pentamer+ T cells was shown in the upper left quadrants in the upper lane of the figure suggesting the loss of CFSE in the dividing CD8+ T cells. The lower lane showed the proliferative capacity of the two CD8+ T-cell subsets. (B) The comparison of the frequency of HLA-A2-pentamer+ CFSElow proliferating CD8+ T cells between mild/moderate patients and severe/critical patients at acute stage of the disease (Mann-Whitney U test). P values of ≤0.05 were considered statistically significant. CFSE, 5, 6-carboxyf luorescein succinimidyl ester. SEB, Staphylococcal enterotoxin B.