The Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein is required for positive selection during T-cell lineage differentiation

oleh: Melissa Pille, John Avila, Guillem Sanchez Sanchez, Guillem Sanchez Sanchez, Guillem Sanchez Sanchez, Guillem Sanchez Sanchez, Glenn Goetgeluk, Glenn Goetgeluk, Stijn De Munter, Stijn De Munter, Hanne Jansen, Lore Billiet, Karin Weening, Haipeng Xue, Sarah Bonte, Sarah Bonte, Joline Ingels, Joline Ingels, Laurenz De Cock, Laurenz De Cock, Eva Pascal, Eva Pascal, Lucas Deseins, Lucas Deseins, Tessa Kerre, Tessa Kerre, Tom Taghon, Tom Taghon, Georges Leclercq, Georges Leclercq, David Vermijlen, David Vermijlen, David Vermijlen, David Vermijlen, Brian Davis, Bart Vandekerckhove, Bart Vandekerckhove

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-06-01

Deskripsi

The Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is an X-linked primary immune deficiency caused by a mutation in the WAS gene. This leads to altered or absent WAS protein (WASp) expression and function resulting in thrombocytopenia, eczema, recurrent infections, and autoimmunity. In T cells, WASp is required for immune synapse formation. Patients with WAS show reduced numbers of peripheral blood T lymphocytes and an altered T-cell receptor repertoire. In vitro, their peripheral T cells show decreased proliferation and cytokine production upon aCD3/aCD28 stimulation. It is unclear whether these T-cell defects are acquired during peripheral activation or are, in part, generated during thymic development. Here, we assessed the role of WASp during T-cell differentiation using artificial thymic organoid cultures and in the thymus of humanized mice. Although CRISPR/Cas9 WAS knockout hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) rearranged the T-cell receptor and differentiated to T-cell receptor (TCR)+ CD4+ CD8+ double-positive (DP) cells similar to wild-type HSPCs, a partial defect in the generation of CD8 single-positive (SP) cells was observed, suggesting that WASp is involved in their positive selection. TCR repertoire analysis of the DP and CD8+ SP population, however, showed a polyclonal repertoire with no bias toward autoreactivity. To our knowledge, this is the first study of the role of WASp in human T-cell differentiation and on TCR repertoire generation.