phs000626
CD4+ cell transcriptional profiling by RNA sequencing
We use next generation sequencing to investigate the different transcriptomes of closely related CD4+ T-cells from healthy human donors to elucidate the genetic programs that underlie their specialized immune functions. Six cell types were included: Regulatory T-cells (CD25hiCD127low/neg with >95% FOXP3+ purity), regulatory T-cells activated using PMA/ionomycin, CD25-CD45RA+ (''naive'' helper T-cells), CD25-CD45RO+ (''memory'' helper T-cells), activated Th17 cells (>98% IL17A+ purity) and activated IL17-CD4+ T-cells (called ''ThPI''). Poly-T capture beads were used to isolate mRNA from total RNA, and fragment sizes of ~200 were sequenced from both ends on Illumina''s genome analyzer. We confirm many of the canonical signature genes of T-cell populations, but also discover new genes whose expression is limited to specific CD4 T-cell lineages, including long non-coding RNAs. Additionally, we find that genes encoded at loci linked to multiple human autoimmune diseases... (for more see dbGaP study page.)