Time-resolved RNA atlas of early human T cell activation (mRNA)

MicroRNAs are central regulators of the T cell function. We explored RNA expression profiles over the initial 24 h of human CD4+ T cell activation. We found high similarity in time-resolved miRNA expression courses comparing independent activations and different donors. The detected miRNA expression patterns could be grouped into six classes only, each with a defined time course. MiR-155-5p known for its role in T cell immunity showed the most prevalent expression changes, quantified with an hourly increase of about 60 molecules/cell. As demonstrated for miRNA-155-5p, the analysis of time-resolved miRNA and mRNA expression data allowed to increase the validation rate of predicted miRNA targets to close to 90 %. Combining our time-resolved expression analysis with an absolute quantification of miRNA expression changes, gives new insights into miRNA regulatory networks and indicates the functional dominance of specific miRNAs within the early T cell activation. Early human T cell activation