Functional heterogeneity of human memory T cell clones primed by pathogens or vaccines

It is unclear to what extent T helper cells with a different phenotype (chemokine receptor and cytokine production profile) are generated in response to pathogen challenge or vaccination, and whether such heterogeneity can arise among the progeny of a single precursor. We combined cellular methods to isolate antigen specific T cells from different T helper memory subsets of human donors, and next generation sequencing of their TCR. This approach revealed a high level of heterogeneity in the phenotype of human T cells responding to different pathogens/vaccines also at a clonal level, as we could characterize cells bearing an identical T cell receptor with divergent effector properties. Overall design: NGS-based analysis of T cell receptor repertoire of T helper memory cells identical gross specificity (i.e. responding to a given pathogen or vaccine antigen) belonging to different heper subsets (Th1, Th2, Th17)