부산대학교 도서관

INTRODUCTION:: Recent studies have identified a critical role for stromal-immune cell interactions in immunity and immune tolerance. Transcriptomic profiling has implicated stromal cells in immune-mediated disorders including the two common forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Stromal-immune interactions may edify inflammatory state and the development of IBD-related complications such as fibrosis; yet the lack of protein markers has hampered studying stromal-immune perturbation. METHODS:: In this study, we designed a 40-color spectral flow cytometry assay to characterize hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells in intestinal biopsies and matched blood samples from patients with CD or UC. RESULTS:: We identified circulating stromal-like cells that are significantly more abundant in IBD blood samples than in healthy controls. Those cells expressed podoplanin (PDPN), a commonly used marker for fibroblasts, and they were associated with activated and memory T and B cells, and altered NK cell, monocyte, and macrophage populations. PDPN cells in the blood correlated with PDPN cells in the colon. Principal component analysis distinctly separated healthy blood samples from IBD blood samples, with stromal-like cells and B cell subtypes dominating the IBD signature; Pearson correlation detected an association between PDPN stromal-like cells and B cell populations in IBD blood and gut biopsies. DISCUSSION:: These observations suggest that PDPN cells in the blood may serve as a biomarker of IBD. Understanding the relationship between stromal cells and immune cells in the intestine and the blood may provide a window into disease pathogenesis and insight into therapeutic targets for IBD.