Figure 2

Transcriptional Signature of CD8⁺ T Cells from CHB Patients.

(a) Freshly isolated PBMCs from different healthy control donors (HC) and CHB patients were stained with CFSE and stimulated for 3-4 days with anti-CD3/CD28. CD8⁺ T cell proliferation was measured by flow cytometry. Data are representative of three independent experiments. (b) Heatmap representation of mRNAs with >2-fold differences in CD8⁺ T cells of CHB patients and healthy controls (HC) (n = 3 and 3). (c) AP-1 family member mRNA expression in total CD8⁺ T cells of CHB patients and healthy donors (HC) (n = 3 and 3). (d) Heatmap representation of microRNAs with >2-fold differences in CD8⁺ T cells of CHB patients and HC (n = 4 and 5). (e) miR-720 expression in total CD8⁺ T cells of a different cohort of CHB patients and HC quantitated by qPCR (n = 16 and 17). (f) Copy numbers of miR-720 expressed in total CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cells from healthy donors. (g) Copy numbers of miR-720 expressed in total CD8⁺ T cells from CHB patients and HC (n = 16 and 17). (h) miR-720 expression levels in HBV-specific CD8⁺ T cells from the spleens of CHB patients. Shown are expression levels relative to pentamer-negative CD8⁺ T cells from the same patients (n = 4 and 4). Data are represented as mean ± SD in (c), (f) and (g). Bars indicate means in (e) and (h). A two-tailed Student’s t-test was used to determine significance. *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001; NS, Not Significant.