Tonsils are important lymphoid organs in which B cells and T cells complete their maturation and identify cells that are infected by pathogens. However, the functions of T cells in human tonsils remain unclear, especially the characteristics of polyfunctional CD4⁺ T helper cells. In this study, we used multi-color flow cytometry to analyze the expression or co-expression of effector cytokines in CD4⁺ T cells from tonsillar tissues. We have demonstrated that tonsillar CD4⁺ T cell can express various Th effector cytokines after short-term polyclonal stimulation, and that cytokine-producing CD4⁺ T cells were CD45RO⁺ T cells. In addition, we analyzed the co-expression of two or more kinds of cytokines at the level of a single cell. The results showed that tonsillar CD4⁺ T cells exhibited polyfunctionality by co-expressing two to five kinds of cytokines in the same time. These data furnished a basic theory for further understanding the differentiation of polyfunctional Th cells in human tonsils and their functions in resisting invasive microorganisms.

扁桃体是重要的淋巴器官，B 细胞和 T 细胞在其中完成成熟并识别被病原体感染的细胞。然而，人类扁桃体中T细胞的功能仍不清楚，特别是多功能CD4 ⁺ T辅助细胞的特征。在本研究中，我们使用多色流式细胞术分析来自扁桃体组织的CD4 ⁺ T细胞中效应细胞因子的表达或共表达。我们已经证明扁桃体CD4 ⁺ T细胞在短期多克隆刺激后可以表达各种Th效应细胞因子，并且产生细胞因子的CD4 ⁺ T细胞是CD45RO ⁺ T细胞。此外，我们还分析了单细胞水平上两种或多种细胞因子的共表达。结果表明，扁桃体CD4 ⁺ T细胞通过同时共表达2至5种细胞因子而表现出多功能性。这些数据为进一步了解人扁桃体中多功能Th细胞的分化及其抵抗微生物入侵的功能提供了基础理论。