Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 20 pp 8879—8891

Figure 4. Tumor-infiltrating CD8+CXCR5+ T cells from HCC patients are potent inducers of plasmablasts differentiation in vitro. (A) Representative immunofluorescence images of CD19 (green), IL-21 (red) and nuclear staining with DAPI (blue) in HCC tissue. (B) Associations between tumor-infiltrating CD8+CXCR5+ T cells and tumor-infiltrating CD19⁺ B cells (n=19). (C–D) Coculture of autologous CD19+ B cells with healthy blood CD8+CXCR5+ T cells or tumor-infiltrating CD8+CXCR5+ T cells. On day 5, the supernatants were harvested. IgG (C) and IgM levels (D) were determined using an ELISA (n=3). (E–F) Immunohistochemical staining of CD138+ B cells in paraffin-embedded HCC tissue (n=96). (G–H) Patients were divided into two groups (Low/High) based on the median of the tumor-infiltrating CD138+ B cell percentages. The DFS and OS curves between the two patient groups were compared using the log-rank test. **P<0.01.