Increased Vδ1γδT cells Predominantly Contributed to IL-17 Production in the Development of Adult Human Post-infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Abstract Background: γδT cells play an important role in the mucosa inflammation and immunity-associated disorders. Our previous study reported that γδT 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 Vδ1 and Vδ2 subset was detected by FACS after stained with anti δ1-PE and anti δ2-APC. The local colonic proportion of this two subsets were measured under laser confocal fluorescence microscope. Vδ1 γδ 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. Vδ1 γδ T cells significantly increased while Vδ2 γδ 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 Vδ1 γδ T cells remarkably proliferated, activated and produced IL-17 (P<0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that Vδ1 γδ T cells was the predominant γδ T cells subset in both peripheral and intestinal tissue, and was the major IL-17 producing γδ T cells in PI-IBS.