Human blood MAIT cell subsets defined using MR1 tetramers.

ABSTRACT: Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells represent up to 10% of circulating human T cells. They are usually defined using combinations of non-lineage-specific (surrogate) markers such as anti-TRAV1-2, CD161, IL-18Rα and CD26. The development of MR1-Ag tetramers now permits the specific identification of MAIT cells based on T-cell receptor specificity. Here, we compare these approaches for identifying MAIT cells and show that surrogate markers are not always accurate in identifying these cells, particularly the CD4⁺ fraction. Moreover, while all MAIT cell subsets produced comparable levels of IFNγ, TNF and IL-17A, the CD4⁺ population produced more IL-2 than the other subsets. In a human ontogeny study, we show that the frequencies of most MR1 tetramer⁺ MA

SUBMITTER: Gherardin NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6446826 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature