Fig. 5

AKT/mTOR signaling is up-regulated in CD4 CTLs with increased cytotoxicity. A Violin plots exhibited ssGSEA enrichment scores of VEGF signaling and AKT related pathways in CD4 CTLs from GO patients (red) and HC (blue). B Representative histogram plots (left) exhibited the expression of p-AKT in CD4 CTLs from GO (red) and HC (blue) (N = 5). The bar plots (right) showed the MFI of p-AKT in CD4 CTLs from GO (red) and HC (blue). C Representative histogram plots (left) exhibited the expression of p-AKT in p-VEGF-R2⁺ CD4 CTLs from GO (red) and HC (blue) (N = 4). The bar plots (right) showed the MFI of p-AKT in p-VEGF-R2.⁺ CD4 CTLs from GO (red) and HC (blue). D, E Representative histogram plots exhibited the expression of D p-mTOR and E p-S6K in CD4 CTLs from GO (red) and HC (blue) (N = 3). The bar plots showed the MFI of D p-mTOR and E p-S6K in CD4 CTLs from GO (red) and HC (blue). Error bars showed SEM. The data were representative of at least three biological replicates. ssGSEA: single sample gene score enrichment analysis; HC: healthy control; GO: Graves orbitopathy; mTOR: mammalian target of rapamycin; S6K: ribosomal protein S6 kinase. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001