Open Access

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Poly-functional T helper cells in human tonsillar mononuclear cells

Sifei Yu¹, Xi Luo², Binyan Yang¹, Li Xiao¹, Xingmei Wu³, Huabin Li³, Changyou Wu¹

1 From the Institute of Immunology, Zhongshan School of Medicine; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Organ Donation and TransplantImmunology, Sun Yat-sen University, 74 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou, 510080, P.R. China
2 From the department of Otolaryngology, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou, China
3 From the Allergy Center, Otohinolaryngology Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

* Corresponding Author: Dr. Changyou Wu,

European Cytokine Network 2019, 30(4), 114-122. https://doi.org/10.1684/ecn.2015.0368

Abstract

Tonsils are important lymphoid organs in which B cells and T cells complete their maturation and identify cells that are infected by pathogens. However, the functions of T cells in human tonsils remain unclear, especially the characteristics of polyfunctional CD4⁺ T helper cells. In this study, we used multi-color flow cytometry to analyze the expression or co-expression of effector cytokines in CD4⁺ T cells from tonsillar tissues. We have demonstrated that tonsillar CD4⁺ T cell can express various Th effector cytokines after short-term polyclonal stimulation, and that cytokine-producing CD4⁺ T cells were CD45RO+ T cells. In addition, we analyzed the co-expression of two or more kinds of cytokines at the level of a single cell. The results showed that tonsillar CD4⁺ T cells exhibited polyfunctionality by co-expressing two to five kinds of cytokines in the same time. These data furnished a basic theory for further understanding the differentiation of polyfunctional Th cells in human tonsils and their functions in resisting invasive microorganisms.

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