Th9/IL-9 Profile in Human Echinococcosis: Their Involvement in Immune Response during Infection by Echinococcus granulosus
Figure 2
Percentages of Th9, Th1, Th2, Th17, and Tregs cells in peripheral blood. Subtypes of CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry analysis. The detected cell types included Th9 (IL-9+) cells, Th1 (IFN-γ +) cells, Th2 (IL-4+) cells, Treg (Foxp3+) cells, and Th17 (IL-17+) cells. Cells were first gated on CD3+CD4+ T cells and then on IL-9+/IFN-γ +/IL-4+/Foxp3+/IL-17+CD3+CD4+ T cells, respectively. (a) The representative flow cytometric dot-plots of Th9, Th1, Th2, Th17, and Tregs cells in the blood of the HC, CE, and PCE groups were shown. Numbers within each quadrant indicated percentages of cells within each dot-plot. (b) Comparisons of the percentages of Th9, Th1, Th2, Th17, and Tregs cells in the peripheral blood of the HC, CE, and PCE groups. Horizontal bars indicated means. The percentages of Th cells represented Th cell numbers in total CD4+ T-cell numbers were determined by flow cytometry. (c) Th9 cells were correlated negatively with Th1, Th17, and Tregs cells, while Th9 cells were positively correlated with the numbers of Th2 in peripheral blood in CE patients. Correlations were determined by Spearman rank correlation coefficients. HC: healthy control; CE: CE pretherapy group; PCE: CE post-therapy group.
