PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Harshi Weerakoon AU - Jasmin Straube AU - Katie Lineburg AU - Leanne Cooper AU - Steven Lane AU - Corey Smith AU - Saleh Alabbas AU - Jakob Begun AU - John J Miles AU - Michelle M Hill AU - Ailin Lepletier TI - Expression of CD49f defines subsets of human regulatory T cells with divergent transcriptional landscape and function that correlate with ulcerative colitis disease activity AID - 10.1101/2021.02.22.432185 DP - 2021 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2021.02.22.432185 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/23/2021.02.22.432185.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/23/2021.02.22.432185.full AB - Objective Adoptive regulatory T cell (Treg) therapy is being trialled for treatment of different autoimmune disorders, including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). In-depth understanding of the biological variability of Treg in the human blood may be required to improve IBD immune monitoring and treatment strategies.Methods Through a combination of quantitative proteomic, multiparametric flow cytometry, RNA-sequencing data analysis and functional assays on Treg enriched from the blood of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and healthy controls, we investigated the association between CD49f expression, Treg phenotype and function, and UC disease activity.Results High-dimensional analysis and filtering defined two distinct subsets of human Treg based on the presence or absence of CD49f with divergent transcriptional landscape and functional activities. CD49f negative Treg are enriched for functional Treg markers and present significantly increased suppressive capacity. In contrast, CD49f high Treg display a pro-inflammatory Th17-like phenotype and accumulate in the blood of UC patients. Dysregulation on CD49f Treg subsets in UC patients correlate with disease activity.Conclusion Overall our findings uncover the importance of CD49f expression on Treg in physiological immunity and in pathological autoimmunity.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.