Neonatal neutrophil immune regulatory functional analysis

Neutrophils are one of key innate immune cells which play an important role in pathogen clearance. Neutrophils can also exert immunoregulatory functions via direct or indirect means, particularly on T cell responeses. However, there is little study for its role on T cell differentiation, especially whether neutrophils regulate human neonatal T cell differentiation is not clear. In the current study, we have demonstrated that human neonatal neutrophils can initiate the de novo Th2 cell differentiation. Besides, neonatal neutrophils showed an immature and less differentiated phenotype compared to adult neutrophils. RNAseq results indicated that the gene expression profiles of neonatal neutrophils were quite different from those of adult neutrophils. Specifically, the gene pathways related to eliminating microbes were impared in neonatal neutrophils, which could be another reason contributing to the high susceptibility to pathogens at neonatal stage.