Small intestinal plasma cells transcriptome profiles

Objective: Plasma cells (PCs) are terminally differentiated B-lymphocytes that produce antibodies. The lamina propria of the small intestine is particularly rich in PCs. In coeliac disease (CeD) there is infiltration and increased density of PCs in the small intestinal lesion. Many of these PCs produce disease-specific autoantibodies targeting the enzyme transglutaminase 2 (TG2). The plasmacytosis and high numbers of disease-antigen reactive PCs in CeD motivated us to study the transcriptional programme of PCs from coeliac gut lesions.

Design: We performed RNASeq analysis of IgA+ PCs of untreated CeD patients being specific or non-specific for TG2 and from healthy controls.EGA study EGAS00001003345