Recovery of natural killer cells is mainly in post-treatment period in chronic hepatitis C patients treated with sofosbuvir plus ledipasvir

Figure 7 Frequency of CD56⁺ natural killer cells, phenotypes and cytokine expression of natural killer cells between treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced chronic hepatitis C patients. Flow cytometric analyses of the frequency of CD56⁺ natural killer (NK) cells (A), the expression of NKG2A (B), NKG2D (C), NKG2C (D), CD94 (E), NKp30 (F), NKp46 (G), IFN-γ (H), perforin (I) and Granzyme B (J) expression of NK cells and the changing trend between treatment-naïve (n = 7) and treatment-experienced (n = 6) chronic hepatitis C patients during and after direct-acting antivirals therapy. Pt: Post of treatment; IFN: Interferon; NK: Natural killer; PBMCs: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells; CHC: Chronic hepatitis C.