FIGURE 2 from Exhausted Tumor-infiltrating CD39⁺CD103⁺ CD8⁺ T Cells Unveil Potential for Increased Survival in Human Pancreatic Cancer

Coinhibitory receptor expression on CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ tumor-infiltrating T cells. Proportion of CD4⁺ (A) and CD8⁺ (B) T cells expressing PD-1 (CT n = 54, PT n = 52, NTT n = 42), TIM-3 (CT n = 53, PT n = 51, NTT n = 41), LAG-3 (NTT n = 6, CT n = 16, PT n = 16), CTLA-4 (CT n = 9, PT n = 8,NTT n = 2), and coexpressing PD-1 and TIM-3 coinhibitory markers (CT n = 53, PT n = 51, NTT n = 41; C, left), flow cytometry representative dot plots on CD8⁺ T cells (right) to identify coexpression of PD-1 and TIM-3. D, Proportion of PD-1, TIM-3, PD-1TIM-3, LAG-3, and CTLA-4 in CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells from patients’ PBMCs. E, Boolean gating analysis was performed on TIM-3, PD-1, and LAG-3 (n = 16). Pies (left) show median values on central tumor tissues (CT), peripheral tumor tissues (PT), and patients’ PBMCs (blood). F, Proportion of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells expressing 0, 1, 2, or 3 coinhibitory markers in central and peripheral tumor tissues. A–C, Friedman test followed by Dunn test was used to evaluate significant difference between groups (CT, PT, NTT) if n > 5. E, Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test was used to detect statistically significant differences between CT and PT tissues. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; ns, not significant.