IL-17A, IL-17F and IL-21 producing cells are predominantly of CD4⁺ T cell lineage in leprosy.

<p>A. Representative data from one each of BT and LL patients of antigen stimulated PBMC using multi-color flowcytometry (see Material and Methods). The CD3 gated population showed intracellular cytokines predominantly in the CD4⁺ cells. Percentage of IL17A⁺ cells was higher than IL17F⁺ cells. % of IL21⁺ cells was highest than the others in both types of leprosy. CD8⁺ cells also showed IL-21 in a smaller percentage of cells as indicated in the figure. BT showed higher percentage of all there cytokines as compared to LL subjects. % of cells is given in the upper quadrant of the figure B. Scattergram depicting Mean % ± SD of the cytokine bearing cells in 9 BT and 6 LL subjects, confirming the significant increase in percentage of cells in BT for all 3 cytokines as indicated by p values given in the figure. Abbreviations as in <a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002338#pntd-0002338-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>. Parenthesis shows number of subjects tested and numbers in figure give % of double positive cells.