WASp Deficiency Selectively Affects the TCR Diversity of Different Memory T Cell Subsets in WAS Chimeric Mice

BACKGROUND: The T cell receptor (TCR) diversity is essential for effective T cell immunity. Previous studies showed that TCR diversity in Wiskott–Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) patients was severely impaired, especially in the memory T cell populations. Whether this defect was caused by intrinsic WASp deficiency or extrinsic reasons is still unclear. METHODS: We sorted different T cell subsets from the bone marrow chimeric mice model using both magnetic beads and flow cytometry. TCR repertoires of memory T cells, especially CD4(+) effector memory T (TEM) cells and CD8(+) central memory T (TCM) cells, were analyzed using the UMI quantitative high-throughput sequencing (HTS). RESULTS: An average of 5.51 million sequencing reads of 32 samples was obtained from the Illumina sequencing platform. Bioinformatic analyses showed that compared with wild type (WT), WAS knock out (KO)-CD4(+) TEM cells exhibited increased Simpson index and decreased D50 index (P <0.05); The rank abundance curve of KO-CD4(+) TEM cells was shorter and steeper than that of WT, and the angle of (q)D and q in KO-CD4(+) TEM cells was lower than that of WT, while these indexes showed few changes between WT and KO chimeric mice in the CD8(+)TCM population. Therefore, it indicated that the restriction on the TCRVβ repertoires is majorly in KO-CD4(+) TEM cells but not KO- CD8(+) TCM cells. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a comprehensive parameter for TCRVβ diversity, successfully segregated CD4(+) TEM cells from WT and KO, but failed in CD8(+) TCM cells. Among the total sequences of TRB, the usage of TRBV12.2, TRBV30, TRBV31, TRBV4, TRBD1, TRBD2, TRBJ1.1, and TRBJ1.4 showed a significant difference between WT-CD4(+) TEM cells and KO-CD4(+) TEM cells (P <0.05), while in CD8(+) TCM cells, only the usage of TRBV12.2 and TRBV20 showed a substantial difference between WT and KO (P <0.05). No significant differences in the hydrophobicity and sequence length of TCRVβ were found between the WT and KO groups. CONCLUSION: WASp deficiency selectively affected the TCR diversity of different memory T cell subsets, and it had more impact on the TCRVβ diversity of CD4(+) TEM cells than CD8(+) TCM cells. Moreover, the limitation of TCRVβ diversity of CD4(+) TEM cells and CD8(+) TCM cells in WAS was not severe but intrinsic.