Fig. 6

a + b Cytokine and chemokine levels in cell culture supernatants. PBMC of 9 iRM patients, 11 kidney transplant recipients > 3 months post-transplant, 3 kidney transplant recipients < 3 months post-transplant, 5 ESRD patients and 7 HC were incubated with tumor cell line K562 using an E:T ratio of 5:1. K562 stimulates particularly NK cells. Cytokine and chemokine levels were measured in the supernatants of unstimulated and stimulated cell cultures. The most interesting finding was that cells of iRM patients showed the highest spontaneous TGFß1 production of all female patients and HC after incubation in medium indicating a strong pre-activation of cells (iRM vs female transplant recipients late post-transplant p = 0.080). After stimulation, TGFß1 levels were lower than before stimulation indicating a strong consumption of TGFß1 by activated NK cells of iRM patients. In contrast, transplant recipients late post-transplant exhibited a higher TGFß1 production after than before stimulation (p < 0.050). A similar high spontaneous production and strong consumption of cytokines by activated cells was observed for IL6 in the supernatants of iRM patients (iRM vs female transplant recipients late post-transplant p = 0.068)