Fig. 2
Pre- and post-operative immunoscoring of selected peripheral immune effector cells in relation to the body weight. The results of the determined immune effector cells in the blood samples of the 52 patients by flow cytometry were correlated with certain parameters including body weight, sex, and kind of arthroplasty. The values are expressed in % of the PBMCs, and in the case of CD56bright and CD56dim NK cells, the values are expressed in % of the NK cells. a The amount of peripheral Th cells increased with the BMI in males and females, but not statistically significant. b In the pre-operative condition, the amount of CTLs was statistically significantly reduced in obese patients, when compared to normal weight patients. This effect could not be observed directly after surgery. c In the pre-operative phase, the number of peripheral CTLs negatively correlated to the BMI in males and females. These effects were only statistically significant in males. d The by far strongest effects were determined for NK cells. In the constellations male vs. females and knee vs. hip joint implants, the NK cells were significantly reduced after surgery. e The number of peripheral NK cells decreased with the BMI in males and females. However, these effects were weak and not statistically significant. Interestingly, in the pre-operative phase, males had significant higher levels of CD56dim NK cells than females (f), but for CD56bright NK cells, it was the other way around (g)