Transcriptome profiling of human Natural Killer (NK) cells overexpressing the transcription factors T-BET or EOMES

T-BET and EOMES are key transcription factors in the development of mature NK cells in mice. However, the role of these transcription factors during human NK cell development is less well understood. Therefore, we overexpressed T-BET or EOMES in human umbilical cord blood-derived hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) and cultured them in vitro in an NK cell differentiation model. On day 21 of culture mature stage 4 (CD56+CD94+CD16-) and stage 5 (CD56+CD94+CD16+) NK cells from T-BET or EOMES overexpression and control cultures were sorted, whereafter mRNA was isolated and transcriptome analysis was performed by RNA sequencing. Evaluation of the transcriptome in mature NK cells with T-BET or EOMES overexpression could reveal the molecular mechanisms of how T-BET and EOMES play a role in terminal NK cell maturation. Overall design: mRNA profile of T-BET and EOMES overexpressing NK cells from day 21 of culture in comparison to control transduced NK cells.