Mass Cytometry Analysis Reveals that Specific Intratumoral CD4 + T Cell Subsets Correlate with Patient Survival in Follicular Lymphoma

Zhi Zhang Yang, Hyo Jin Kim, Jose C. Villasboas, Tammy Price-Troska, Shahrzad Jalali, Hongyan Wu, Rebecca A. Luchtel, Mei Yin C. Polley, Anne J. Novak, Stephen M. Ansell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent B cell malignancy characterized by an extensive but poorly functional T cell infiltrate in the tumor microenvironment. Using mass cytometry, we identified at least 12 subsets of intratumoral CD4 + T cells, 3 of which were unique to FL biopsies versus control tissues. Of these subsets, the frequency of naive T cells correlated with improved patient survival. Although total PD-1 + T cell numbers were not associated with patient outcome, specific PD-1 + T cell subpopulations were associated with poor survival. Intratumoral T cells lacking CD27 and CD28 co-stimulatory receptor expression were enriched in FL and correlated with inferior patient outcomes. In vitro models revealed that CD70 + lymphoma cells played an important role in expanding this population. Taken together, our mass cytometry results identified CD4 + memory T cell populations that are poorly functional due to loss of co-stimulatory receptor expression and are associated with an inferior survival in FL. Yang et al. utilize mass cytometry (CyTOF) to characterize intratumoral T cells and explore the clinical relevance of T cell subsets in follicular lymphoma (FL). Clustering analysis reveals an immune signature with reduced expression of co-stimulatory molecules on intratumoral T cells that correlated with a poor prognosis in FL.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2178-2193.e3
JournalCell reports
Volume26
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 19 2019

Keywords

  • CD27
  • CD4 CD25 regulatory T cells
  • CyTOF
  • PD-1
  • co-stimulatory receptor
  • follicular lymphoma
  • immune signature
  • intratumoral CD4 T cell
  • mass cytometry
  • patient survival

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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