The distinctive signature of regulatory CD4 T cells committed in the human thymus

• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1553554
• Publication Date: 2025-03-26T07:46:52Z
• Authors: Alexandre A. S. F...; Susana Paço; Miguel Ângelo-Dias; Pedro Rosmaninho; Afonso R. M. Almeida; Ana E. Sousa

Thymically committed regulatory CD4 T cells (tTregs) are essential for immune homeostasis and self-tolerance. We established the human tTreg Expression Signature by comparing genome-wide transcriptomic profiles between tTregs their conventional counterparts (tTconvs). further exploited high sequencing depth of our bulk RNA-seq data to identify a subset 250 genes significantly expressed in with neglectable expression tTconvs, defined as below levels IL2RA , that we named thymic Treg “private” genes. Notably, pathways related cell motility, inflammation, T-cell effector specification were overrepresented within private found 163 these less circulating naïve memory Tregs when compared peripheral generated parallel. This result suggested higher activity most thymus compartments. Altogether, provide unique resource inform future studies, such improving annotation single-cell spatial transcriptional data, or help designing studies validate putative biomarkers thymically Tregs, priority field.