title: Phenotypic Complexity of the Human Regulatory T Cell Compartment Revealed by Mass Cytometry.
abstract: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are an essential component of the cellular immune response, occupying a key role in maintaining immunological tolerance and present an attractive therapeutic target in a range of immunopathologies. Comprehensive analysis of the human Treg compartment has been restricted due to technical limitations. The advent of mass cytometry enables simultaneous assessment of vastly increased phenotypic parameters at single-cell resolution. In this study, we used mass cytometry to examine the complexity of human Tregs using an extensive panel of surface markers associated with Treg function and phenotype. We applied unsupervised clustering analysis, revealing 22 distinct subpopulations of Tregs, representing previously identified and novel subpopulations. Our data represent the most in-depth phenotypic description of the human Treg compartment at single-cell resolution and show a hitherto unrecognized degree of phenotypic complexity among cells of the regulatory lineage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Gavin M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Transplantation, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom; and.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lowe
authors.affiliation: NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Melchiotti
authors.affiliation: NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.affiliation: NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Rinaldis
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peakman
authors.affiliation: NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heck
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Transplantation, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom; and.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunobiology, King's College London, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom; timothy.tree@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Timothy I M
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Tree
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C418974:FOXP3 protein, human; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors