Dengue Virus Induces NK Cell Activation through TRAIL Expression during Infection

Figure 3

DENV-2-stimulated NK cells: subpopulation frequencies and TRAIL expression analysis. Healthy donors’ PBMCs were freshly obtained and subsequently stimulated with DENV-2 at several multiplicities of infection (10, 1, and 0.1) or negative controls as MOCK (uninfected C636 cell culture supernatant) or not stimulated (NS) for 18 hours. (a) NK cells were gated as CD3−CD56+CD16+ or CD3−CD56+CD16− and TRAIL-positive cells were detected for each subpopulation. (b) CD3−CD56+CD16− (left) or CD3−CD56+CD16+ (right) frequencies among PBMCs stimulated with MOCK (orange), DENV-2 (blue) or not stimulated (gray) are shown. (c) TRAIL-positive cells among CD3−CD56+CD16+ or CD3−CD56+CD16− after stimulation with DENV-2, MOCK, or not stimulated. Values were submitted to Friedman’s test with Dunn’s multiple comparison test in which differences with (), () or () were considered statistically significant.

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