Figure 1

Flow-cytometric assessment of the percentage of naïve T cells and the expression of T cell activation markers. For the determination of naïve T cell frequencies, whole blood was stained with anti-CD4 or -CD8 together with anti-CCR7 and anti-CD45RA antibodies. Panels A and B show dot plots of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells with their respective gating of the frequencies of naïve cells as shown in the region markers. For the determination of activated T cell frequencies, whole blood was stained with anti-CD3 and anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 together with anti-CD95 or anti-CD38 antibodies, respectively. Panels C and D show histogram plots of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells expressing CD95 and CD38 activation markers, respectively. The peak of unstained control is shown in the first decade of each plot. Peaks of CD95^dim and CD95^bright on CD4⁺ cell populations were separately analyzed. The expression of CD38 on CD8⁺ T cells was characterized by a unique peak.