Single cell RNAseq of human TCRVdelta 1 and TCRVdelta 2 gammadelta T lymphocytes purified from healthy adults blood
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ABSTRACT: γδ T lymphocytes represent ~1% of human PBMC and even more cells in most tissues of vertebrates. Although they have important anticancer functions, most current scRNA-Seq studies do not identify γδ T lymphocytes since their transcriptomes at the single cell level are unknown. Here we show that high resolution clustering of large scRNA-Seq data sets and a combination of gene signatures allow the specific detection of human γδ T lymphocytes and identification of their TCRVδ1 and TCRVδ2 subsets in large data sets from complex cell mixtures. In t-SNE plots from blood and tumor samples, the few γδ T lymphocytes appear collectively embedded between cytotoxic CD8 T and NK cells. Their TCRVδ1 and TCRVδ2 subsets form close yet distinct sub-clusters respectively neighbouring NK and CD8 T cells owing to expression of shared and distinct cytotoxic maturation genes. Similar pseudo-time maturation trajectories of TCRVδ1 and TCRVδ2 γδ T lymphocytes were discovered, unveiling in both subsets an unattended pool of TEMRA cells with preserved proliferative capacity, a finding confirmed by in vitro proliferation assays. Overall, the single cell transcriptomes of thousands of individual gd T lymphocytes from different CMV+ and CMV- donors reflect cytotoxic maturation stages driven by the immunological history of donors. This landmark study establishes the rationale for identification, subtyping and deep characterization of human γδ T lymphocytes in further scRNA-Seq studies of complex tissues in physiological and disease conditions.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE128223 | GEO | 2019/05/01
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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