Longitudinal changes in NK and T cell counts in peripheral blood in response to SIV infection.

Absolute counts for total NK cells (A), CD8⁺ T cells (B), CD4⁺ T cells (C), KIR3DL01⁺ NK cells (D), KIR3DL05⁺ NK cells (E), KIR3DL01^-05^- NK cells (F), KIR3DL01⁺05⁺ NK cells (G), CD16⁺ NK cells (H), CD56⁺ NK cells (I), and CD16^-CD56^- NK cells (J) were monitored by staining whole blood and PBMCs as described in the methods. Individual (K) and geometric mean (L) SIV RNA loads in plasma are shown for Mamu-A1*002⁺ (blue) and–A1*002^- (red) animals. Gating strategies for determining absolute lymphocyte counts in blood and the percentages of PBMCs expressing CD16, CD56, KIR3DL01 and KIR3DL05 are shown in S1 and S4 Figs. Viral loads were measured using a qRT-PCR assay with a detection threshold of 30 copies/ml (dotted line) and error bars indicate 95% CI for geometric mean values. Statistics were calculated using a mixed effects model by comparing results from acute (week 1–4) and chronic (weeks 6–24) infection to pre-infection (week 0) (p<0.05 *, p<0.01**, p< 0.005*** & p<0.001****).