Figure 4. The increased/decreased usage of T cell receptor (TCR)-Vβ families in CD4+CD25 T cells and CD4+CD25+CD127lowT cells of patients with autoimmune neutropenia (AIN) and control subjects
Means and standard deviations (SDs) of TCR-Vβ family usage of conventional T cells (CD4+CD25 T cells) and regulatory T cells (CD4+CD25+CD127lowT cells) were calculated in the control group and used as normal values. Heat map classifies the degrees of each usage of TCR-Vβ families using five colors; within normal range: −2 SD – +2 SD (white), > +2 SD (pink), > +3 SD (red), < −2 SD (pale green), < −3 SD (green) (a). The increased and decreased numbers of CD4+CD25 T cell and CD4+CD25+CD127lowT cells per person were compared. Data are represented as box-plots (b). *p = 0.0022, **p = 0.0001 (Wilcoxon rank-sum test). n.s; not significant.