rESAT-6-CFP10-induced regulatory T cells in TB patients and healthy donors.

<p>Freshly isolated PBMC from 10 TB patients were cultured in the presence of ESAT-6-CFP10 or without antigen for 6 days. Harvested cells were then stained for the expression of CD25 and Foxp3 within the CD4⁻ (B & D) and CD4⁺ (A & C) T cell populations. The figure illustrates the mean proportions (horizontal lines) of CD4⁺ and CD4⁻ T cells expressing both CD25 and FoxP3 (A & B) or CD25 with high fluorescent intensity (CD25^hi) and Foxp3 (C & D) after subtracting the responses obtained in unstimulated cultures. The dots are the individual responses and the error bars represent the standard errors of the mean. The repeated measures one-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparison tests was used for comparison of longitudinal data with the baseline results in patients. The Mann Whitney p-value was used in the comparison of baseline results from TB patients with healthy donors (**P<0.05 in longitudinal comparison and * P<0.05 in unpaired variables) Abbreviations are described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0068121#pone-0068121-g001" target="_blank"><b>Figure 1</b></a>.