Next Generation Sequencing for Quantitative Analysis of transcriptome of follicular compared to non-follicular CD8 T cells from HIV+ Lymph nodes

The goal of the study was to characterize the molecular signatures of CD8 T cell subpopulations sorted from HIV+ lymph nodes and HIV- tonsils. We compared the transcriptome profiles of follicular and non -foliccular CD8 T cells (sorted based on the surface expression fo CCR7 and CXCR5, chemokine receptors that govern the intratissue trafficking of T cells). This is the first study addressing this question. We found several genes differentially expressed in these two CD8 T cell populations. Our pathway analysis revealed that several pathways related to costimulation/activation as well as to beta-catenin pathway were differentially expressed in these two CD8 t cell populations too. CD8 T cell populations were sorted and whole transcriptome analysis was performed using an Illumina machine