NK cell activity in response to K562 target cells as well as intracellular NFAT2 expression is retained in KTx patients compared to healthy individuals.
<p>(A) PBMC of healthy donors (n = 4, grey bar) or of KTx patients (n = 4, white bar) were incubated for 18h with K562 target cells and activation was quantified by IFN-γ ELISpot and multiplex analyses of supernatants for perforin and granzyme A/B. For statistical analyses, spots were normalized to 10.000 NK cells per well and mean values ± standard deviations are depicted, compared by Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s Multiple Comparison test. (B) PBMC of healthy donors (n = 6) were pre-incubated with immunosuppressive drugs (5 μM) or DMSO solvent for 20 min and either left unstimulated (shaded bars) or P/I stimulated for additional 6h or 24h, respectively (grey bars, left and middle graph). KTx recipient-derived PBMC (n = 4) were stimulated identically, cells were stained intracellular for total NFAT2 and analyzed by flow cytometry. The right plot shows total NFAT2 in healthy donors compared to KTx patients after 24h stimulation. Mean values and standard deviations are displayed compared by two-sided One-way-ANOVA test (* = p≤0.05, ** = p≤0.01, *** = p≤0.001, only significant values are shown).</p
