Single-cell transcriptional responses of T cells during microsporidia infection

Abstract T cells have been reported to play critical roles in preventing of microsporidia dissemination. However, there roles and functions of each subset remain unclear. Here in the study, we performed a thorough analysis of murine splenic T-cell response analysis via single-cell RNA sequencing dur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yunlin Tang, Lu Cao, Jiangyan Jin, Tangxin Li, Yebo Chen, Yishan Lu, Tian Li, Louis M. Weiss, Guoqing Pan, Jialing Bao, Zeyang Zhou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-04-01
Series:Communications Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07990-4
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract T cells have been reported to play critical roles in preventing of microsporidia dissemination. However, there roles and functions of each subset remain unclear. Here in the study, we performed a thorough analysis of murine splenic T-cell response analysis via single-cell RNA sequencing during microsporidia E. cuniculi infection. We demonstrated that Type I T helper (Th1) cells, T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, effector CD8 + T cells and proliferating CD8 + T cells were activated and expanded after infection. Activated Th1 cells and Tfh cells presented significantly upregulated gene expression of Ifng and Il21, respectively. A subcluster of Th1 cells with high Csf1 expression was detected after infection. Subsets of activated CD8 + T cells were markedly enriched with high expression of cytotoxic-function related genes such as Gzma and Gzmb, whereas some active CD8 T cells were enriched with proliferation-function related genes Mki67 and Stmn1. Other subsets of T cells including NK T cells, Myb+ T cells, γδ T cells and Cxcr6+ T cells, were also analyzed in this study yet no expansion was observed. In summary, our findings provide in-depth and comprehensive insights into T-cell responses during microsporidia infection, which will be valuable for further investigations.
ISSN:2399-3642