Fig. 8
Minor modulations of NK cell function upon HCV clearance. a Heatmap summarizing the median frequency of responding cells or median mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) (CD69 and MIP-1β) for the indicated functional readouts after stimulation for chronic HCV patients (n = 21, 21, 20, 20, and 14 for baseline, week 4, 12, 24, and 36) at the indicated time points. One arrow (irrespective of color) in the heatmap represents p < 0.01, two arrows represent p < 0.001, the direction of arrows indicates an increased or decreased response as compared to baseline. b Multifunctional analysis of CD107a, IFN-γ, TNF, and MIP-1β responses of NK cells (n = 21 for baseline and n = 15 for week 36) for the indicated stimulations where the color denotes the number of simultaneously exhibited functions. The median percentage of total responding cells for each function is indicated by its size in the pie chart with total cells represented as the outer border. c Donor-to-donor expression variation (DEV) analysis of the function responses after the indicated stimulations. d Inverse Simpson Diversity Index (SDI) analysis based on CD107a, IFN-γ, TNF, and MIP-1β responses for the indicated stimulations. In (c) and (d), bars represent median values. Paired t-test or Wilcoxon test were used for statistical analysis
