Figure 4

Comparison of cytokine secretion of CXCR3⁺ cTfh and CXCR3⁻ cTfh cells from individuals with HCV infection. (A) Representative flow cytometry plots of cytokine expression in CXCR3⁺ cTfh and CXCR3⁻ cTfh cells after stimulation by PMA and ionomycin. Because CD4 expression on T cells was significantly decreased after PMA and ionomycin costimulation, we gated CD8⁻ T cells and regarded them as CD4⁺ T cells for further analysis of cytokine on cTfh cells, (B–E) Comparison of the expression levels of IFN-γ (B), IL-21 (C), IL-17 (D), and IL-10 (E) between CXCR3⁺ cTfh and CXCR3⁻ cTfh cells from individuals with HCV infection (n = 21). The paired t-test was used for the analysis.