Phenotype of Peripheral NK Cells in Latent, Active, and Meningeal Tuberculosis

Figure 5

Memory-like NK cells in patients with TBM. (a) The percentage of CD27⁺ NK cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples from healthy controls (HC, ), individuals with latent TB infection (LTBI, ), patients with active pulmonary TB (PTB, ), and patients with tuberculous meningitis (TBM, ) was determined by flow cytometry. (b) PMBCs from HC, LTBI, PTB, and TBM patients were cultured with a cell wall (CW) extract of Mtb H37Rv for 48 h ( per group). After the stimulation, the percentage and fold increase of CD27⁺ NK cells were determined. (c) The proportion of CD69⁺ cells was compared between CD27⁺ and CD27^- NK cells at each group. (d) Percentage of peripheral blood CD45RO⁺ NK cells. (e) After the stimulation, the percentage and fold increase of CD45RO⁺ NK cells were determined. (f) The proportion of CD69⁺ cells was compared between CD45RO⁺ and CD45RO^- NK cells at each group. Fold increases were calculated as follows: the percentage of a specific cell subpopulation after culture of PBMCs with Mtb antigens was divided by the percentage of the same cell subset before such stimulation. Differences between groups were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and post hoc Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons. Comparisons between cells from the same group were analyzed with the Student -test and values corrected for multiple comparisons using the Holm method. The data shown represent the mean (±SE) values. , , , and .

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