Bim-mediated deletion of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells in patients unable to control HBV infection
J. Clin. Invest. A. Ross Lopes, et al. 118:1835 doi:10.1172/JCI33402 [Go to this article.]

Figure 3
Rescue of in vitro–cultured HBV-specific CD8⁺ T cells derived from individuals with CHB. Representative flow cytometry plots and cumulative data (below) showing the effect of pancaspase inhibition on the detection of envelope and core-specific CD8⁺ T cells (A and B, respectively) in 10-day peptide-stimulated cultures of PBMCs from individuals with chronic infection. Differences in responses with and without caspase inhibition were calculated with the paired Student’s t test (P < 0.0001). (C) Representative plots of the detection of HBV-specific CD8⁺ T cells in short-term lines of PBMCs from an individual with chronic infection utilizing pools of overlapping peptides corresponding to the HBV precore/core (PreC/C), X, envelope (Ep1 and Ep2), and polymerase (Pp1–4) proteins with and without caspase inhibition. (D) Influenza A–specific CD8⁺ T cells detected in short-term lines from individuals with chronic infection ± caspase inhibition. (E) HBV-specific CD8⁺ T responses detected in short-term lines from resolved individuals with and without caspase inhibition. (F) HBV-specific CD8⁺ T cell rescue following specific inhibition of proapoptotic Bax in short-term lines from patients with chronic infection.