Figure 1

Increase of NK cell percentages in the peripheral blood and SFs of DRA patients. (A–C) Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from healthy controls (n = 32), DRA patients (n = 24), and NDRA patients (n = 27). The mean percentages and standard deviations of NK cells (CD56⁺/CD3⁻, A) and different NK cell sub-populations (CD56^dim, B, CD56^bright, C) in the blood of each group are shown in the graphs. *The ratio of CD56⁺/CD3⁻ varies significantly among the three groups (****p < 10⁻¹¹). Two of the three post hoc pairwise tests (blood DRA versus healthy or blood DRA versus NDRA) were also very highly significant (****p < 10⁻⁵). (D–F) Mononuclear cells were isolated from SFs of DRA patients (left panels, n = 16), and NDRA patients (right panels, n = 18) described in (A–C). The mean percentages and standard deviations of sfNK cells (CD56⁺/CD3⁻, D) and different NK cell sub-populations (CD56^dim, E, CD56^bright, F) in the SFs of each group are shown in the graphs.****p < 10⁻⁶ (G) Pie charts summarizing the different sub-populations of immune cells derived from the blood of healthy controls, DRA and NDRA patients (upper charts), and the different sub-populations of blood CD56^dim and CD56^bright NK cells (lower charts) derived from healthy controls, DRA and NDRA patients described in (A–C). (H) Pie charts summarizing the different sub-populations of immune cells derived from the SFs of DRA and NDRA patients (upper charts), and the different sub-populations of SFs CD56^dim and CD56^bright NK cells (lower charts) derived from DRA and NDRA patients described in (D–F).