Abstract
Tand B lymphocytes are developmentally and functionally related cells of the immune system, representing the two major branches of adaptive immunity. Although originating from a common precursor, they play very different roles: T cells contribute to and drive cell-mediated immunity, whereas B cells secrete Abs. Because of their functional importance and well-characterized differentiation pathways, T and B lymphocytes are ideal cell types with which to understand how functional differences are encoded at the transcriptional level. Although there has been a great deal of interest in defining regulatory factors that distinguish Tand B cells, a truly genomewide view of the transcriptional differences between these two cells types has not yet been taken. To obtain a more global perspective of the transcriptional differences underlying Tand B cells, we exploited the statistical power of combinatorial profiling on different microarray platforms, and the breadth of the Immunological Genome Project gene expression database, to generate robust differential signatures. We find that differential expression in T and B cells is pervasive, with the majority of transcripts showing statistically significant differences. These distinguishing characteristics are acquired gradually, through all stages of B and T differentiation. In contrast, very few T versus B signature genes are uniquely expressed in these lineages, but are shared throughout immune cells. The Journal of Immunology, 2011, 186: 3047-3057.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3047-3057 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Immunology |
Volume | 186 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2011 |