Enhancement of Cytomegalovirus-Specific Cytokine Production after Modulation of the Costimulation in Kidney Transplant Patients

Figure 3

Increase of CMV-specific cytokine secretion by PD-L1 in healthy controls and effect of tacrolimus and rapamycin. The figure shows the production of IFN-γ (a) and IL-21 (c) without and with addition of PD-L1 antibodies in healthy CMV-positive controls. Lymphocytes were stimulated with CMV lysate. Stimulation with HEL-299 lysate served as negative control, resulting in average spot numbers of 2 per well (data included in the Supplementary file S3). The cells were grown without immunosuppressive drug or treated with tacrolimus (Tac.), rapamycin (Rapa.), or both drugs in combination () and incubated with PD-L1 antibodies at concentrations of 0.1, 1, and 10 μg/ml. IFN-γ and IL-21 secretion was determined in six healthy controls. Mean and standard of the mean (SEM) of spot numbers are depicted. The effect of PD-L1 antibodies was analyzed by one-way ANOVA with a posthoc test. Values above the bold horizontal lines indicate values obtained by the Friedman test, a significant result of Dunn’s posthoc test (to compare the various concentrations) is given above the thin horizontal line ().

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