IL-2 production by unfractionated PBMC expressing HCV-core.

<p>PBMC transduced with a lentiviral vector coding for HCV-core protein fused to GFP or GFP alone as a control, were rested for 24 hours without IL-2 after six days in culture and stimulated with anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28. Intracellular IL-2 staining was analyzed by FACS. <b>A</b>. Gating strategy: GFP expressing lymphocytes were gated according to their FSC and SSC as well as green fluorescent features. <b>B</b>. IL-2 production by HCV-core expressing PBMC. Histograms are a representative experiment out of four performed with a different donor each. GFP or HCV-core transduced PHA-blasts (black striped curves). Grey open curves correspond to isotype control staining. Bar diagram represents mean±SD of the % of PBMC that produce IL-2 from four independent experiments. <b>C</b>. IL-2 production of CD4+ or CD4- cells in unfractionated PBMC. PBMC were processed as described above and stained with anti-CD4 before IL-2 staining. Dot plots show CD4 staining versus IL-2 production of electronically gated GFP (or HCV-core). Bar diagrams show mean±SD of the percentage of IL-2-producing cells for each subpopulations from four independent experiments (**p<0.01).