The chromatin and single-cell transcriptional landscapes of CD4 T cells in inflammatory bowel disease link risk loci with a proinflammatory Th17 cell population

Abstract

Introduction: The imbalance between Th17 and regulatory T cells in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) promotes intestinal epithelial cell damage. In this scenario, T helper cell lineage commitment is accompanied by dynamic changes to the chromatin that facilitate or repress gene expression.

Methods: Here, we characterized the chromatin landscape and heterogeneity of intestinal and peripheral CD4 T cellsfrom IBD patients using in house ATAC-Seq and single cell RNA-Seq libraries.

Results: We show that chromatin accessibility profiles of CD4 T cells from inflamed intestinal biopsies relate to genes associated with a network of inflammatory processes. After integrating the chromatin profiles of tissue-derived CD4 T cells and in-vitro polarized CD4 T cell subpopulations, we found that the chromatin accessibility changes of CD4 T cells were associated with a higher predominance of pathogenic Th17 cells (pTh17 cells) in inflamed biopsies. In addition, IBD risk loci in CD4 T cells were colocalized with accessible chromatin changes near pTh17-related genes, as shown in intronic STAT3 and IL23R regions enriched in areas of active intestinal inflammation. Moreover, single cell RNA-Seq analysis revealed a population of pTh17 cells that co-expresses Th1 and cytotoxic transcriptional programs associated with IBD severity.

Discussion: Altogether, we show that cytotoxic pTh17 cells were specifically associated with IBD genetic variants and linked to intestinal inflammation of IBD patients.

Keywords: CD4 T cells; Crohn's disease; Ulcerative colitis; cytotoxicity; genetic variants; inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); pathogenic (p)Th17 cells.