Intrathymic programming of effector fates in three molecularly distinct γδ T cell subtypes

• Main Authors: Narayan, Kavitha (Author), Sylvia, Katelyn E. (Author), Malhotra, Nidhi (Author), Yin, Catherine C. (Author), Martens, Gregory (Author), Vallerskog, Therese (Author), Kornfeld, Hardy (Author), Xiong, Na (Author), Cohen, Nadia R. (Author), Brenner, Michael B. (Author), Berg, Leslie J. (Author), Kang, Joonsoo (Author), Immunological Genome Project Consortium (Author), Regev, Aviv (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2014-02-21T18:20:11Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

PMC 2012 November 01
Innate γδ T cells function in the early phase of immune responses. Although innate γδ T cells have often been studied as one homogenous population, they can be functionally classified into effector subsets on the basis of the production of signature cytokines, analogous to adaptive helper T cell subsets. However, unlike the function of adaptive T cells, γδ effector T cell function correlates with genomically encoded T cell antigen receptor (TCR) chains, which suggests that clonal TCR selection is not the main determinant of the differentiation of γδ effector cells. A high-resolution transcriptome analysis of all emergent γδ thymocyte subsets segregated on the basis of use of the TCR γ-chain or δ-chain indicated the existence of three separate subtypes of γδ effector cells in the thymus. The immature γδ subsets were distinguished by unique transcription-factor modules that program effector function.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center, DK32520)
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R24 AI072073 to the ImmGen group)
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (CA100382)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.)