Effector γδ T cells in human renal fibrosis and chronic kidney disease.
Nephrol Dial Transplant 2019;
34:40-48. [PMID:
29897565 DOI:
10.1093/ndt/gfy098]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2018] [Accepted: 03/13/2018] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Background
γδ T cells are effector lymphocytes recognized as key players during chronic inflammatory processes. Mouse studies suggest a pathological role for γδ T cells in models of kidney disease. Here we evaluated γδ T cells in human native kidneys with tubulointerstitial fibrosis, the pathological hallmark of chronic kidney disease.
Methods
γδ T cells were extracted from human kidney tissue and enumerated and phenotyped by multicolour flow cytometry. Localization and cytokine production by γδ T cells was examined by immunofluorescent microscopy.
Results
We detected significantly elevated numbers of γδ T cells in diseased biopsies with tubulointerstitial fibrosis compared with diseased biopsies without fibrosis and healthy kidney tissue. At a subset level, only numbers of Vδ1+ γδ T cells were significantly elevated in fibrotic kidney tissue. Expression levels of cluster of differentiation 161 (CD161), a marker of human memory T cells with potential for innate-like function and interleukin (IL)-17A production, were significantly elevated on γδ T cells from fibrotic biopsies compared with nonfibrotic kidney tissue. Flow cytometric characterization of CD161+ γδ T cells in fibrotic biopsies revealed significantly elevated expression of natural killer (NK) cell-associated markers CD56, CD16 and CD336 (NKp44) compared with CD161- γδ T cells, indicative of a cytotoxic phenotype. Immunofluorescent analysis of fibrotic kidney tissue localized the accumulation of γδ T cells within the tubulointerstitium, with γδ T cells identified, for the first time, as a source of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-17A.
Conclusions
Collectively, our data suggest that human effector γδ T cells contribute to the fibrotic process and thus progression to chronic kidney disease.
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