Figure 3
IL-12 receptor and cytokine-induced increase in pSTAT-4 and perforin expression in M1a + M1b and M1c patients. a) Metastatic melanoma (MM) patients in M1c group have significantly (*p < 0.05, Mann–Whitney exact test) lower expression of IL-12R beta 1 and IL-12R beta 2 on their NK cells compared to MM patients that belong to M1a + M1b group. Results are obtained by Flow cytometry; b) 20 min in vitro treatment with IL-12 increases pSTAT-4 expression in NK cells significantly (*p < 0.05, Mann–Whitney exact test) lower in M1c group of patients compared to the increase in M1a + M1b group; c) Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of perforin in NK cells is significantly (*p < 0.05, Mann–Whitney exact test) lower upregulated after in vitro treatment with IL-12 alone or in combination with IL-18 in M1c group of patients compared to M1a + M1b group. Results are obtained by Flow cytometry and are expressed in indexes calculated as the value of pSTAT-4 or perforin after the cytokine treatment of each MM patient devides with the value of appropriate parameter after treatment in medium alone. All results are shown as mean ± SE for 20 MM patients.