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T cells affect the prognosis of myelofibrosis
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Figure 5. Association between myelofibrosis T-cell subsets and PD1+ fractions with disease progression. Correlations between T-cell subsets and PD1+ fractions with peripheral blood cell counts and spleen size were assessed at treatment baseline. Pre- and on-treatment T cells were also compared based on selected param- eters of disease progression/reduction. (A) Correlation of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets with absolute monocyte and platelet counts (i), and correlation of PD1+/CD4+ and PD1+/CD8+ T-cell percent with absolute leukocyte counts and spleen size (ii). (B) Comparison of CD4+ and CD8+ total T cells, effector memory T cell (TEM) subsets, and PD1+ fractions based on the baseline spleen size, bone marrow (BM) fibrosis grade, and JAK2V617F allele burden. Data are shown for healthy control (CTRL; gray), baseline (Bsl; red), and ruxolitinib-treated (Ruxo; light blue) groups. Follow-up values were calculated as a mean of all the analyzed time- points over the course of treatment. Spleen size was defined by physical examination (the measured distance of palpable spleen edge from the left costal margin in the left midclavicular line) with the cutoff value of 20 cm. BM fibrosis grade was assessed in accordance with European consensus criteria. Mutant JAK2 allele burden was quantified using quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis and dichotomized using the cutoff value of 50%. Regression lines are shown in blue; gray shaded areas denote 95% confidence intervals. Dots with error bars represent means with standard deviation. The Pearson coefficient was used to determine the degree of correlation. A Welch or paired t-test was used to compare the two groups. P values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001. n.s.: not significant.
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