Epithelial cells program adaptive immunity through antigen compartmentalization
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ABSTRACT: Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) serve as critical interfaces between the host immune system and enteric pathogens, yet their role in orchestrating mucosal immune responses remains incompletely understood. Major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII) expression on IECs has been proposed to contribute to antigen presentation and T cell priming during intestinal infection, but the cell type-specific transcriptional programs influenced by epithelial MHCII remain unclear. Here, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (10x Genomics) to comprehensively profile intestinal epithelial and immune cell populations during Citrobacter rodentium infection. We analyzed colonic tissues from H2-Ab1^fl/fl (wild-type) and H2-Ab1^Villin (IEC-specific conditional knockout) mice at naïve baseline and days 9, 14, and 42 post-infection, capturing acute infection, peak response, and memory phases. This dataset enables dissection of MHCII-dependent and -independent transcriptional responses across diverse epithelial lineages and immune cell subsets, providing insights into how IEC-intrinsic MHCII expression shapes mucosal immunity and tissue-resident memory formation during bacterial infection.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE314593 | GEO | 2026/08/10
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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