Dataset Information

Human Tissue-Resident Mucosal-Associated Invariant T (MAIT) Cells in Renal Fibrosis and CKD.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells represent a specialized lymphocyte population associated with chronic inflammatory disorders. Little is known, however, about MAIT cells in diseases of the kidney, including CKD.

Methods

To evaluate MAIT cells in human native kidneys with tubulointerstitial fibrosis, the hallmark of CKD, we used multicolor flow cytometry to identify, enumerate, and phenotype such cells from human kidney tissue biopsy samples, and immunofluorescence microscopy to localize these cells. We cocultured MAIT cells and human primary proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTECs) under hypoxic (1% oxygen) conditions to enable examination of mechanistic tubulointerstitial interactions.

Results

We identified MAIT cells (CD3⁺ TCR Vα7.2⁺ CD161^hi) in healthy and diseased kidney tissues, detecting expression of tissue-resident markers (CD103/CD69) on MAIT cells in both states. Tissue samples from kidneys with tubulointerstitial fibrosis had significantly elevated numbers of MAIT cells compared with either nonfibrotic samples from diseased kidneys or tissue samples from healthy kidneys. Furthermore, CD69 expression levels, also an established marker of lymphocyte activation, were significantly increased on MAIT cells from fibrotic tissue samples. Immunofluorescent analyses of fibrotic kidney tissue identified MAIT cells accumulating adjacent to PTECs. Notably, MAIT cells activated in the presence of human PTECs under hypoxic conditions (modeling the fibrotic microenvironment) displayed significantly upregulated expression of CD69 and cytotoxic molecules perforin and granzyme B; we also observed a corresponding significant increase in PTEC necrosis in these cocultures.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that human tissue-resident MAIT cells in the kidney may contribute to the fibrotic process of CKD via complex interactions with PTECs.

SUBMITTER: Law BMP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6622420 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:A recently identified unconventional T cell population known as mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are characterized by the expression of semi-invariant T cell receptor (TCR) with a canonical TRAV1-2/TRAJ33 (Vα7.2/Jα33). These evolutionary conserved, innate-like T cells recognize vitamin B metabolites, derived from some bacteria and fungi. Due to their presence not only in the T cell repertoire of mucosal surfaces but also in peripheral blood and liver, and their significant involvement in a wide range of diseases, in-depth characterization of human MAIT cells is a timely requirement. Studies that examined the transcriptome, immunoproteome, and whole-cell proteome characterized the role of cytotoxic molecules and cytokines in effector functions of MAIT cells and their relationship with some other immune cell subsets. As MAIT cells are classified under the CD3+ T cell compartment and the majority express surface receptor CD8, identifying their proteomic relationship with CD3+ and CD8+ T cells is pivotal. Thus, a high-resolution dataset was generated using the cell populations sorted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of three healthy volunteers to describe the whole cell proteomes of MAIT, CD3+, and CD8+ T cells. Trypsin-digested peptide samples obtained from the methanol co-precipitation method were analyzed using an Orbitrap FusionTM TribridTM mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) inline coupled to nanoACQUITY ultra-performance liquid chromatography system (Waters, USA) to acquire data-dependent shotgun proteomic data (DDA-MS) for label-free quantification. Analysis of raw DDA-MS data using MaxQuant software and maxLFQ identified and quantified 4,442 protein groups at a 1% false discovery rate. Further analysis identified 3,680 proteins which were detected with a single UniProt accession and a minimum of 2 unique or razor peptides. Thus this proteomic dataset can be used as a reference proteome for future studies on human MAIT cells.