Hepatitis C Virus Induces Regulatory T Cells by Naturally Occurring Viral Variants to Suppress T Cell Responses

Figure 5

Increased Foxp3 expression in an antigen-specific manner by variant S370P stimulated PBMC from chronic P.B3019. (a) Representative flow plots of CFSE^low Foxp3⁺ cells from lymphocytes that were CD4⁺ CD127^- (gating scheme Figure 3(a)) stimulated with the indicated antigens at 1 μM for 7 days. Peptide added to PBMC cultures is listed above the plot, and the percentages are the percent of CD4⁺CD127^-CFSE^low cells. (b) Variant S370P (𝑥=81.8±SEM5.7) stimulated PBMC significantly increases the expression of Foxp3 in CD4⁺CD127^-CFSE^low cells above the medium background (𝑥=55.73±SEM2.57) for P.B3019. ^∗𝑃<.05 as determined by Student’s t-test.

(a)

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