Specificity and Dynamics of Effector and Memory CD8 T Cell Responses in Human Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Infection
Figure 3
Functional profile of TBEV-specific effector and memory CD8 T cell responses.
(A) PBMCs from infected subjects (n = 5) and healthy controls (n = 5) were stimulated for 6 hours with a pre-selected TBEV peptide pool in the presence of brefeldin A and monensin. Intracellular expression of MIP-1β, IFN-γ, and TNF, as well as the cell surface expression of CD107a, were assessed by flow cytometry and are shown as respresentative flow plots at day 21 after hospitalization. (B) Bar plots show the 10–90th percentiles of CD107a, MIP-1β, TNF and IFN-γ production in response to a pre-selected peptide pool at day 0, 7, 21 and 90 after hospitalization (n = 5). (C) Pie charts indicate the mean composition of the total response in CD8 T cells with regards to their capacity to express one, two, three or four functions at days 7, 21 and 90 after hospitalization. (D) Dominant polyfunctional profiles at day 7, 21 and 90 after hospitalization. The percentage of parent populations is indicated for each dominant population. (E) Bar chart represents the subset distribution of CD27, CD45RA and CD57 in cells responding with CD107a, MIP-1β, IFN-γ, or TNF after stimulus with a pre-selected peptide pool day 7, 21 and 90 after hospitalization. (F) Heat map represents subset distribution of Eomes and T-bet in cells responding with CD107a, MIP-1β, IFN-γ, or TNF after stimulus with the pre-selected peptide pool at day 0, 7, 21 and 90 after hospitalization. Statistical analysis was performed by using the non-parametric repeated measures ANOVA test. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001.