Increased Vδ1γδT cells predominantly contributed to IL-17 production in the development of adult human post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome

Background: gamma delta T cells play an important role in the mucosa inflammation and immunity-associated disorders. Our previous study reported that gamma delta T cells producing IL-17 were involved in the pathogenesis of post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS). However, their subset characteristic profile in this kind of disease remains unclear. Thus the current study's aim is to investigate the functionally predominant subset and its role in PI-IBS. Methods: The total T cells were collected from the peripheral blood of patients with PI-IBS. The peripheral proportion of V delta 1 and V delta 2 subset was detected by FACS after stained with anti delta 1-PE and anti delta 2-APC. The local colonic proportion of this two subsets were measured under laser confocal fluorescence microscope. V delta 1 gamma delta T cells were enriched from the total peripheral T cells by minoantibody-immuno-microbeads (MACS) method and cultured, functionally evaluated by CCK-8 assay (proliferation), CD69/CD62L molecules expression assay (activation) and ELISA (IL-17 production) respectively. Results: 1. V delta 1 gamma delta T cells significantly increased while V delta 2 gamma delta T cells remained unchanged in both the peripheral blood and local colonic tissue from PI-IBS patients (p < 0.05). 2. When cultured in vitro, the V delta 1 gamma delta T cells remarkably proliferated, activated and produced IL-17 (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that V delta 1 gamma delta T cells was the predominant gamma delta T cells subset in both peripheral and intestinal tissue, and was the major IL-17 producing gamma delta T cells in PI-IBS.

Automated summary

In patients with PI-IBS, the V delta 1 γδ T cells significantly increased in both peripheral blood and local colonic tissue, while V delta 2 γδ T cells remained unchanged. Furthermore, V delta 1 γδ T cells demonstrated remarkable proliferation, activation, and IL-17 production when cultured in vitro.