CD4+ teff cell heterogeneity: the perspective from single-cell transcriptomics.

CD4+ teff cell heterogeneity: the perspective from single-cell transcriptomics. Curr Opin Immunol. 2020 Apr 04;63:61-67 Authors: Zemmour D, Kiner E, Benoist C Abstract Single-cell transcriptomics (scRNAseq) holds the promise to generate definitive atlases of cell types. We review scRNAseq studies of conventional CD4+ αβ T cells performed in a variety of challenged contexts (infection, tumor, allergy) that aimed to parse the complexity and representativity of previously defined CD4+ T cell types, lineages, and cosmologies. With a few years' experience, the field has realized the difficulties and pitfalls of scRNAseq. With the very high-dimensionality of scRNAseq data, subset definitions based on low-dimensionality marker combinations tend to fade or blur: cell types prove more complex than expected; transcripts of key defining transcripts (cytokines, chemokines) are distributed as broad and partially overlapping continua; boundaries with innate lymphocytes are blurred. Tissue location and activation, either cytokine-driven or TCR-driven, determine Teff heterogeneity in sometimes unexpected ways. Emerging techniques for lineage and trajectory tracing, and RNA-protein connections, will further help define the space of differentiated CD4+ T cell heterogeneity. PMID: 32259715 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Immunol Source Type: research