Figure 1.
Circulating innate lymphocytes are depleted in adults, but not children, with CD.
Scatterplots showing percentages (left column) and absolute numbers (right column) of innate lymphocyte subsets in fresh whole blood, comparing coeliac donors to matched controls for (A) paediatric (n=38 for controls, n=21 for UCD), and (B) adult (n=78 controls, n=56 TCD, n=18 UCD) populations. All subsets are expressed as a percentage of the total T cell population. TCD = treated coeliac donors (on gluten free diet), UCD = untreated coeliac donors (diet contains gluten). Dotplots show flow cytometry data for representative control, treated and untreated coeliac donors (C), where Vα7.2 + /CD161+ populations describe MAIT cells. *P <0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, error bars show standard error of the mean.
Figure 2.
Innate lymphocyte subsets are altered in the intestinal epithelium and lamina propria of both paediatric and adult coeliac donors, compared with controls.
Scatterplots showing percentages of small intestinal innate lymphocyte subsets in (A) epithelium, and (B) lamina propria for paediatric (n=34 controls, n=19 UCD) and adult coeliac (n=7 controls, n=8 TCD, n=6 UCD) donors and matched control subjects. All subsets are expressed as a percentage of the total T cell population. TCD = treated coeliac donors (on gluten free diet), UCD = untreated coeliac donors (diet contains gluten). Dotplots show flow cytometry data from gut epithelial cells (C), and lamina propria cells (D) for representative control and coeliac donors, where Vα7.2 + /CD161+ populations describe MAIT cells. *P <0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, error bars show standard error of the mean.
Figure 3.
γδ T cells from the coeliac small intestine display a functional “effector memory” phenotype.
(A) Differential expression of CD45RA and CD27 by γδ T cells was used to analyse naïve (CD45RA+/CD27+), central memory (TCM; CD45RA-/CD27+), effector memory (TEM; CD45RA-/CD27-) and terminally differentiated (TEMRA; CD45RA+/CD27-) subsets in the blood, small intestinal epithelium and lamina propria from paediatric patients. (B) Expression of IFN-γ by unstimulated and stimulated epithelial γδ T cells, control n=5, coeliac n=4. *P <0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, error bars show standard error of the mean.
Figure 4.
CD56 expression is profoundly downregulated in the coeliac gut, but not blood, both in percentage of cell expression, and expression intensity.
CD56 expression was analysed on non-T cells, non-γδ T cells, and Vδ1 T cells in terms of frequency (A) and mean fluorescence intensity (B). Flow cytometry plots are also shown for representative control and coeliac donors (C). For simplicity, data is shown for a paediatric population only, but similar trends were noted in the adult cohort. *P <0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, error bars show standard error of the mean.