Figure 2

Analysis of NK cell phenotype in CFS affected individuals. Fresh blood was stained with the antibody combinations described in Table 1. Panel A. NK cells were gated as CD3^-CD19^- PBMC and analyzed for CD16 and CD56 staining defining CD56 bright (R1), CD56⁺CD16⁺ (R2) or CD16⁺ (R3) gates. Representative histograms showing the expression of NKp46 (upper plots) and CD57 (lower plots) are shown. Panel B. NK cell subsets gated according to Panel A were analyzed for the expression of CD69 (upper), CD25 (middle) and NKp46 receptor is shown. Panel C. In parallel, double positive CD56⁺CD16⁺ NK cells were analyzed for the expression of CD57, as the percentage of positive cells (upper graph) or the Mean Fluorescence intensity (lower graph). In all cases, data from healthy donors (n = 25, HD) and SFC affected individuals (n = 19, SFC) are shown, with median (thick lines), interquartile range (boxes) and 10–90 percentile values (bars). In all cases, p-values for nonparametric Mann–Whitney comparison are shown.