Local and Systemic CD4⁺ T Cell Exhaustion Reverses with Clinical Resolution of Pulmonary Sarcoidosis

Figure 1

Spontaneous and TCR-stimulated cytokine secretion in CD4⁺ T cells. CD4⁺ T cells were isolated from the PBMC of healthy control (HC) or sarcoidosis (S) subjects and cultured for 24 hours in the absence (a and b) or presence (c and d) of polyclonal TCR stimulation. Cell culture supernatants were collected 24 hours post TCR stimulation and analyzed for cytokine secretion by cytokine bead array. (a) Spontaneous IL-2 secretion in pg/mL. (b) Spontaneous IFN-γ secretion in pg/mL. (c) TCR-stimulated IL-2 secretion in pg/mL. (d) TCR-stimulated IFN-γ secretion in pg/mL. (e) Spontaneous and TCR-stimulated IL-2 secretion by sarcoidosis CD4⁺ T cells in pg/mL. (f) Spontaneous and TCR-stimulated IFN-γ secretion by sarcoidosis CD4⁺ T cells in pg/mL. Horizontal lines represent mean values of cytokine secretion for each cohort. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann–Whitney U test. , , and .

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