Antiviral Treatment Alters the Frequency of Activating and Inhibitory Receptor-Expressing Natural Killer Cells in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infected Patients

Figure 1

Characterization of different subsets of NK cells. The frequency of different subsets of NK cells was determined by flow cytometry analysis using specific antibodies. Briefly, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were prepared from individual subjects and stained with a cocktail of APC-anti-CD56 and FITC-anti-CD3 and the cells were gated on CD3^-CD56⁺ as NK cells. Furthermore, the cells were stained with APC-anti-CD56 and PE-conjugated antibodies against CD158a, or CD158b, NKp30, NKp44, NKp46, NKB1, KIR2DL3, NKG2D, NKG2A, NKG2C, or isotope controls, respectively, for characterizing the frequency of different subsets of NK cells. Data shown are representative charts of flow cytometry analysis of some subsets of NK cells.