Fig. 1

Percentage expression of CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells among study groups. a Representative flow cytometry gating strategy for phenotyping CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ and CTLA-4+ Tregs in peripheral blood. The percentage expression and activation of regulatory T cells were analysed in healthy controls (n = 16), children with asymptomatic infections (n = 18) and symptomatic falciparum malaria (n = 22); for levels of b Tregs analysed as CD4+CD25+FOXP3+; and, c activated Tregs analysed as CD4+CD25+FOXP3+CTLA-4+ T cells both ex vivo and after iRBC stimulation. The data are presented as box plots with inter-quartile ranges. The 10th and 90th percentiles are denoted by whiskers. Medians are indicated by the horizontal lines across the boxes. Kruskal–Wallis test was used for comparisons, followed by Dunn’s test where necessary