Fig. 1

Natural Killer cell purity. a Gating strategy used to identify NK cells. Representative flow cytometry plots from the PBMCs of one of the study participants. The lymphocytes were live gated during acquisition using the side and forward scatter dot plot display and then single and dead cells were excluded. Furthermore, by using the negative and positive gating strategies, CD3⁻ as well as CD56⁺ lymphocyte populations were identified. b Bar graphs representing isolated NK cell purity for HC and CFS/ME patients. Data presented as mean ± SEM. HC = 95.3% ± 1.322 and CFS/ME = 95.98% ± 1.093. Abbreviations: 7-AAD, 7-amino-actinomycin; CFS/ME, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis; FSC, forward scatter; HC, healthy controls; NK cell, natural killer cell; SSC, side scatter