Identification of NK cell exhaustion in WD patients.
a. The violin plots showing the relative expression level of genes in NK cells between the two group. ***, P<0.001; Wilcox test. b. Representative immunofluorescence staining for NK cells marked by CD56 and expression of KLRC1 in liver tissues of WD and control. The nucleus is stained by DAPI. Scale bars, 100 μm for 40X and 50 μm for 100X. KLRC1+ NK cells are highlighted by arrows. The bar chart showing the proportion of KLRC1+ NK cells. Quantifications were performed by assessing three random fields per slide. Data are mean± S.D. Unpaired two-tailed t-test. c. Gating strategy applied in flow cytometry. Upper: NK cells were determined by CD3-CD56+. Down: NK cells with positive indicators (KLRC1, TIGIT, and IFNγ) were recorded. d. The bar charts showing the percentage of KLRC1+ (WD, n=5; Control, n=5), TIGIT+ (WD, n=3; Control, n=3), and IFNγ+ (WD, n=4; Control, n=4) NK cells. Data are mean± S.D. Unpaired two-tailed t-test.