Fig. 1

Increased number of circulating peripheral blood CD56^bright NK cells counts in HPV16(+) CIN II–III. A(a) Representative flow cytometry dot plots (SSC-A vs FSC-A). A(b) gated from A(a) and stained to obtain NK cells using CD3⁻ CD56⁺ as a marker. A(c) A representative dot plot in which two NK cell subsets were gated based on CD56 and CD16 expression: CD56^dim and CD56^bright NK cells. B(a–c) The percentage of NK cells and its subsets was analyzed from HPV16(+) women with different CIN grades or HPV(−) women using violin plots, in which each dot represents a donor. B(d–f) the absolute count of NK cells and their subsets was analyzed from HPV16(+) women with different CIN grades or HPV(−) women using violin plots, in which each dot represents a donor. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to determine statistical significance