Developmental bifurcation of human T follicular regulatory cells

Germinal centers (GCs) are anatomic structures where B cells undergo affinity maturation, leading to production of high-affinity antibodies. The balance between T follicular helper (TFH) and regulatory (TFR) cells is critical for adequate control of GC responses. The study of human TFH and TFR cell development has been hampered because of the lack of in vitro assays reproducing in vivo biology, along with difficult access to healthy human lymphoid tissues. We used a single-cell transcriptomics approach to study the maturation of TFH and TFR cells isolated from human blood, iliac lymph nodes (LNs), and tonsils. As independent tissues have distinct proportions of follicular T cells in different maturation states, we leveraged the heterogeneity to reconstruct the maturation trajectory for human TFH and TFR cells. We found that the dominant maturation of TFR cells follows a bifurcated trajectory from precursor Treg cells, with one arm of the bifurcation leading to blood TFR cells and the other leading to the most mature GC TFR cells. Overall, our data provide a comprehensive resource for the transcriptomics of different follicular T cell populations and their dynamic relationship across different tissues.

Automated summary

The maturation trajectory of TFH and TFR cells was studied using single-cell transcriptomics, revealing a bifurcation in the maturation path of TFR cells from precursor Treg cells, leading to different mature states of TFR cells in blood and germinal centers.