Gamma-delta T cells represent a distinctive subset within the T cell family, and their implications in cancer have been under rigorous investigation. A recent study, led by CRC 1160 member Sagar (B08 and Z02), involved researchers from the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, including Maike Hofmann (CRC 1160, A02) and Robert Thimme (CRC 1160, A02), and Institut Curie Paris, shedding light on the diversity and tissue residency of gamma-delta T cells across various organs in mice.
The study utilized cutting-edge multimodal single-cell profiling approaches to reveal distinct populations of γδ T cells across organs. γδ T cells in the skin and intestine were found to exhibit epigenetic hallmarks of functional plasticity. Insights into tissue residency features were gained through parabiosis experiments, demonstrating tissue-specific residency characteristics unique to γδ T cell subsets. Unlike other lymphocyte lineages such as tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells and natural killer T cells, gamma-delta T cells do not share a universal transcriptional program of tissue residency defined by Hobit and Blimp1 across organs. However, genome-wide transcriptional hallmarks of tissue-resident γδ T cells are analogous to all other tissue-resident lymphocytes. The study’s findings have been published in Nature Immunology and are available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01710-y
For a deeper exploration of how single-cell biology enhances our understanding of the diverse roles of this crucial T cell lineage, refer to a recently published review by Sagar (B08, Z02) here: https://doi.org/10.1093/jleuko/qiad131
