Site-specific development and progressive maturation of human tissue-resident memory T cells over infancy and childhood.
Immunity
; 56(8): 1894-1909.e5, 2023 08 08.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37421943
ABSTRACT
Infancy and childhood are critical life stages for generating immune memory to protect against pathogens; however, the timing, location, and pathways for memory development in humans remain elusive. Here, we investigated T cells in mucosal sites, lymphoid tissues, and blood from 96 pediatric donors aged 0-10 years using phenotypic, functional, and transcriptomic profiling. Our results revealed that memory T cells preferentially localized in the intestines and lungs during infancy and accumulated more rapidly in mucosal sites compared with blood and lymphoid organs, consistent with site-specific antigen exposure. Early life mucosal memory T cells exhibit distinct functional capacities and stem-like transcriptional profiles. In later childhood, they progressively adopt proinflammatory functions and tissue-resident signatures, coincident with increased T cell receptor (TCR) clonal expansion in mucosal and lymphoid sites. Together, our findings identify staged development of memory T cells targeted to tissues during the formative years, informing how we might promote and monitor immunity in children.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Memory T Cells
/
Lymphoid Tissue
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Newborn
Language:
En
Journal:
Immunity
Journal subject:
ALERGIA E IMUNOLOGIA
Year:
2023
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States