Characteristics of γδTCR on myeloid cells from C57BL/6 mice with Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis infection

Abstract

Recently, there is a paucity of studies focus on the characteristics of myeloid cells which expressed γδTCR. The aim of this study was to observe the properties of γδTCR-expressing myeloid cells in the spleen of C57BL/6 mice infected by P. yoelii nigeriensis NSM. Haematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe pathological changes in the spleens from infected mice. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the infection and control groups were analyzed by RNA sequencing (RNA -seq). Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to evaluate the frequency of γδTCR⁺ cells and the characteristics of γδTCR⁺ cells in P. yoelii nigeriensis NSM-infected mice. Obvious infiltration of inflammatory were observed in the spleens from infected C57BL/6 mouse. The proportions of γδTCR⁺ cells and CD11b⁺ γδTCR⁺ cells from infected group were higher than that from normal group. CD11b⁺ γδTCR⁺ cells expressed high levels of activated-mediated genes and inflammatory-mediated genes. The heterogeneous pathway activities among CD11b⁺ γδTCR⁺ cells from normal and infected group were characterized. The oxidative phosphorylation, respiratory electron transport chain and leukocyte activation involved in immune response pathways were up-regulated, while the alpha-beta T cell activation and myeloid leukocyte migration pathways were down-regulated in infected mice. Importantly, Ly6c2 was higher expressed in CD11b⁺ γδTCR⁺ cells than Ly6g. Consistent with it, flow cytometry results revealed that a subset of Ly6C⁺ cells was higher than Ly6G⁺ cells in the spleen. Taken together, our data suggest the existence of a population of γδTCR-expressing myeloid cells and they might be multifunctional cells, which play a role in couse of Plasmodium infection.