The underlying cellular mechanisms causing adverse reactions to food are complex and still not fully understood. Therefore, in this study we aimed to identify functional and/or phenotypical immune cell signatures characteristic for adult patients reporting adverse reactions to food. By mass cytometry, we performed high-dimensional profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from adult patients reporting adverse reactions to food and healthy controls. The patients were grouped according to sIgE-positive or sIgE-negative serology to common food and inhalant allergens. Two broad antibody panels were used, allowing determination of major immune cell populations in PBMC, as well as activation status, proliferation status, and cytokine expression patterns after PMA/ionomycin-stimulation on a single cell level. By use of data-driven algorithms, several cell populations were identified showing significantly different marker expression between the groups. Most striking was an impaired frequency and function of polyfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in patients reporting adverse reactions to food compared to the controls. Further, subpopulations of monocytes, T cells, and B cells had increased expression of functional markers such as CD371, CD69, CD25, CD28, and/or HLA-DR as well as decreased expression of CD23 in the patients. Most of the differing cell subpopulations were similarly altered in the two subgroups of patients. Our results suggest common immune cell features for both patient subgroups reporting adverse reactions to food, and provide a basis for further studies on mechanistic and diagnostic biomarker studies in food allergy.

中文翻译：

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在报告食物不良反应的成年过敏患者中，多功能 T 细胞减少，细胞激活标记物增加。


引起食物不良反应的潜在细胞机制很复杂，目前尚未完全了解。因此，在这项研究中，我们的目的是确定报告食物不良反应的成年患者的功能和/或表型免疫细胞特征。通过质谱流式分析，我们对报告食物不良反应的成年患者和健康对照者的外周血单核细胞 (PBMC) 进行了高维分析。根据常见食物和吸入性过敏原的 sIgE 阳性或 sIgE 阴性血清学对患者进行分组。使用两个广泛的抗体组，可以确定 PBMC 中的主要免疫细胞群，以及单细胞水平上 PMA/离子霉素刺激后的激活状态、增殖状态和细胞因子表达模式。通过使用数据驱动的算法，鉴定出几个细胞群，这些细胞群在各组之间显示出显着不同的标记表达。最引人注目的是，与对照组相比，报告食物不良反应的患者多功能 CD4+ 和 CD8+ T 细胞的频率和功能受损。此外，患者中单核细胞、T 细胞和 B 细胞亚群的功能标记物（例如 CD371、CD69、CD25、CD28 和/或 HLA-DR）表达增加，而 CD23 表达减少。在这两个亚组患者中，大多数不同的细胞亚群也发生了类似的改变。我们的结果表明，报告食物不良反应的两个患者亚组具有共同的免疫细胞特征，并为进一步研究食物过敏的机制和诊断生物标志物研究提供基础。