Fig. 6

VEGF-A promotes the cytotoxic function of CD4 CTLs via AKT/mTOR pathway. A, B Representative histogram plots (upper) exhibited the expression of A p-AKT B p-mTOR and C p-S6K in CD4 CTLs from CON (blue) and VEGF-A (red) group (N = 3). The bar plots (bottom) showed the MFI of A p-AKT B p-mTOR and C p-S6K in CD4 CTLs from CON (blue) and VEGF-A (red) group. D Bar plots exhibited levels of GZMB, PRF1 and GZMK in CD4 CTLs from CON (blue), mTOR activator (red) and VEGF-A (gray) group (N = 4). E–H The levels of E p-mTOR and F–H the proportions of GrmB⁺ and Prf⁺ in CD4 CTLs (N = 4). F The representative tSNE plots showed the proportions of GrmB⁺ (red) and Prf⁺ (blue) in CD4 CTLs (gray). The quantification of E the MFI of p-mTOR and ratio of G GrmB⁺ and H Prf.⁺ cells in CD4 CTLs was shown in the bar plots. Blue was CON, red for VEGF-A treated, light gray was VEGF-A + AKT inhibitor, dark gray for VEGF-A + mTOR inhibitor, and black was VEGF-A + AKT inhibitor + mTOR activator group. Error bars showed SEM. The data were representative of at least three biological replicates. CON: control; mTOR: mammalian target of rapamycin; Grm: granzyme; Prf: perforin. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001