Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Circulating gluten-specific FOXP3 + CD39 + regulatory T cells have impaired suppressive function in patients with celiac disease

Cook, Laura, Munier, C. Mee Ling, Seddiki, Nabila, van Bockel, David, Ontiveros, Noé, Hardy, Melinda Y., Gillies, Jana K., Levings, Megan K., Reid, Hugh H., Petersen, Jan, Rossjohn, Jamie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2020-7522, Anderson, Robert P., Zaunders, John J., Tye-Din, Jason A. and Kelleher, Anthony D. 2017. Circulating gluten-specific FOXP3 + CD39 + regulatory T cells have impaired suppressive function in patients with celiac disease. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 140 (6) , pp. 1592-1603. 10.1016/j.jaci.2017.02.015

[thumbnail of main.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

Background Celiac disease is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disorder of the gut triggered by dietary gluten. Although the effector T-cell response in patients with celiac disease has been well characterized, the role of regulatory T (Treg) cells in the loss of tolerance to gluten remains poorly understood. Objective We sought to define whether patients with celiac disease have a dysfunction or lack of gluten-specific forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3)+ Treg cells. Methods Treated patients with celiac disease underwent oral wheat challenge to stimulate recirculation of gluten-specific T cells. Peripheral blood was collected before and after challenge. To comprehensively measure the gluten-specific CD4+ T-cell response, we paired traditional IFN-γ ELISpot with an assay to detect antigen-specific CD4+ T cells that does not rely on tetramers, antigen-stimulated cytokine production, or proliferation but rather on antigen-induced coexpression of CD25 and OX40 (CD134). Results Numbers of circulating gluten-specific Treg cells and effector T cells both increased significantly after oral wheat challenge, peaking at day 6. Surprisingly, we found that approximately 80% of the ex vivo circulating gluten-specific CD4+ T cells were FOXP3+CD39+ Treg cells, which reside within the pool of memory CD4+CD25+CD127lowCD45RO+ Treg cells. Although we observed normal suppressive function in peripheral polyclonal Treg cells from patients with celiac disease, after a short in vitro expansion, the gluten-specific FOXP3+CD39+ Treg cells exhibited significantly reduced suppressive function compared with polyclonal Treg cells. Conclusion This study provides the first estimation of FOXP3+CD39+ Treg cell frequency within circulating gluten-specific CD4+ T cells after oral gluten challenge of patients with celiac disease. FOXP3+CD39+ Treg cells comprised a major proportion of all circulating gluten-specific CD4+ T cells but had impaired suppressive function, indicating that Treg cell dysfunction might be a key contributor to disease pathogenesis.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Medicine
Additional Information: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0091-6749
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 10 July 2017
Date of Acceptance: 16 February 2017
Last Modified: 06 May 2023 00:30
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/102239

Citation Data

Cited 41 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics