Fig. 3

Comparison of the percentages of IL-10⁺ and TGF-β⁺ NK cells in HIV-infected patients and HCs

PBMCs from HCs, ART- naïve, and ART-treated patients were stimulated using rIL-12 (10 ng/ml) and rIL-15 (50 ng/ml). IL-10⁺ and TGF-β⁺ NK cells were examined by multi-color flow cytometry, with gates defined according to isotype controls. Representative flow-cytometric plots of IL-10⁺ and TGF-β⁺ NK cells in HIV-infected patients and HCs (a). Comparison of the percentages of IL-10⁺ NK cells (b), TGF-β⁺ NK cells (c), IL-10⁺ CD56^dim NK cells (d), TGF-β⁺ CD56^dim NK cells (e), IL-10⁺ CD56^bright NK cells (f), and TGF-β⁺ CD56^bright NK cells (g), among the three groups. Correlation between the percentage of IL-10⁺ NK cells and TGF-β⁺ NK cells (h). Correlation between the percentage of IL-10⁺ CD56^dim NK cells and TGF-β⁺ CD56^dim NK cells (i)