Fig 1: Differential phenotype of HCV-specific and total memory B cells in HCV-infected patients and uninfected controls.a Representative flow cytometry plots illustrating the gating strategy to identify HCV envelope 2 (E2)-specific memory B cells. b Frequency of HCV-specific B cells in the blood of patients with chronic HCV infection (n = 48) and uninfected controls (n = 17). Each data point represents one study participant; median + IQR are shown. Two-sided p values were calculated with the Mann–Whitney U-test. c Representative flow cytometry plots illustrating CD10- (mature) IgG+ (class-switched) total memory B cells and HCV-specific B cells examined for CD21 and CD27 expression. d Size of B cell subsets with a resting, intermediate, tissue-like, and activated phenotype among total or HCV-specific IgG+CD10- peripheral blood B cells of patients with chronic HCV infection (n = 48 and n = 31, respectively) and uninfected controls (n = 17). Samples with less than 30 HCV E2 tetramer+ events were excluded from CD21/CD27 subset analysis. Two-sided p values were calculated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for paired data or the Mann–Whitney U-test for unpaired data. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.