Transcriptome comparison of NKp80+ and NKp80- CD8+ CCR7- TCR alpha beta + T cells. Homo sapiens

We have performed whole genome expression arrays covering over 47000 transcripts comparing the transcriptional profile of NKp80+ to NKp80- CD8+ CCR7- alpha beta T cells. A highly similar global gene expression profile was observed between both memory phenotype T cell subsets. Interestingly, the majority of differentially expressed genes are immune-associated. NKp80+ cells contained markedly increased levels of transcripts encoding for MHC class I and II molecules and for numerous members of the KIR family. Also other NK-related transcripts were more abundantly expressed in the NKp80+ subset. With regards to cytokines, chemokines and their receptors, transcripts important for homeostasis and proliferation are expressed differently. Also transcripts encoding for adhesion molecules are present at different levels in both T cell subsets. Further cytotoxic effector molecules are expressed differently. Keywords: cell type comparsion Overall design: We used CD4, CD14 depleted PBMCs pooled from six healthy donors. Following FACS sorting of NKp80+ CD8+ CCR7- alpha beta T cells and NKp80- cells, respectively, transcript levels of both subsets have been compared on human whole genome expression arrays.