Figure 3
Proliferative CD4+ T-cell responses to mitogens and IL-2 in HAART treated HIV-1-infected patients before and after rhGH immunotherapy. PBMC from 12 HIV-1-infected patients were cultured in the presence of mitogens or IL-2 in triplicate for 6 days and 3H-thymidine incorporation was measured as described in materials and methods. Patient visits are depicted at baseline, weeks 12, 24 and 48. Results are expressed as the mean stimulation index of triplicate cultures with percentage error of the mean <15%. The positive threshold of an SI ≥ 5 is indicated. Box-plots show the median and IQR, and whiskers represent the 10th–90th percentiles. Symbols are specific to each patient according to the key shown in Additional file 1. Randomisation into three groups performed at week 12 is represented by different colours. Group A (red) received placebo, group B (purple) received alternate day dosing of rhGH and group C (blue) received twice weekly dosing of rhGH.