Transcriptome analysis of human colonic IgA+ plasma cell subsets and naïve B cells

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is the most abundant antibody in the intestinal tract. Recent studies show that discrete subsets of gut human plasma cells (PCs) release IgA, which contributes to the maintenance of gut homeostasis. To better characterize the properties of these PC subsets, we performed global transcriptome analysis in naïve B cells as well as immature CD19+IgA+CD138- PCs, mature CD19+IgA+CD138+ PCs and late CD19-IgA+CD138+ PCs after their purification from human colon samples. Control naive (N) CD45+CD10−CD19+IgA−IgM+IgD+ B cells as well as immature CD45+CD10−CD19+IgA+CD38+CD138− PCs (A), mature CD45+CD10−CD19+IgA+CD38+CD138+ PCs (B) and late CD45+CD10−CD19−IgA+CD38+CD138− PCs (D) were FACSorted from histologically normal tissue samples obtained from the ascending colon of four adult donors undergoing right hemicolectomy. The global transcriptome of each of these gut immune cell subsets was dissected by performing microarray analysis.

免疫球蛋白A（IgA）是肠道中含量最为丰富的抗体。近期研究表明，人体肠道浆细胞（plasma cells, PCs）的离散亚群可分泌IgA，该过程有助于维持肠道稳态。为更精准地表征此类浆细胞亚群的特性，我们从人体结肠样本中纯化分离得到初始B细胞，以及未成熟CD19+IgA+CD138- 浆细胞、成熟CD19+IgA+CD138+ 浆细胞与晚期CD19-IgA+CD138+ 浆细胞，并对其开展了全转录组分析。本研究从4名接受右半结肠切除术的成年供体的升结肠获取组织学正常的组织样本，通过荧光激活细胞分选（Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting, FACS）分选出以下细胞群：对照初始（N）CD45+CD10−CD19+IgA−IgM+IgD+ B细胞，未成熟CD45+CD10−CD19+IgA+CD38+CD138− 浆细胞（A）、成熟CD45+CD10−CD19+IgA+CD38+CD138+ 浆细胞（B）以及晚期CD45+CD10−CD19−IgA+CD38+CD138− 浆细胞（D）。针对上述每一类肠道免疫细胞亚群的全转录组，本研究均通过基因芯片分析完成了转录组特征的解析。