Fig. 4: Small intestinal IL-7R^high CD8^low γδ T cells are the dominant source of IL-17A in the mice lung after sepsis.

a T lymphocytes and ILCs in the small intestine were analyzed from sham-operated and septic mice and projected with UMAP plots with colors and the number in parenthesis indicating the identified cell cluster. b Violin plots demonstrate expression of the genes that identify each γδ T cell cluster. c The proportion of each subset of cells in the small intestine. d Diagram of pseudotime trajectory differentiation stages of γδ T cells. e Pseudotime trajectory analysis differentiation plot based on cell types. f Representative FCM plots and percentages of IL-7R and CD8 expression in γδ T cells in the small intestine and lung (n = 8 for sham, 10 for CLP). g Representative FCM plots and percentages of IL-7R and CD8 expression in γδ T17 (IL-17A⁺ γδ T) cells (n = 8 for sham, 10 for CLP). h FCM gate strategy of γδ T17 subgroup and analysis. Graph shows the percentages of IL-7R^low CD8^high γδ T17 cell and IL-7R^high CD8^low γδ T17 cell subsets in pulmonary Kaede red⁺ γδ T17 cells in septic mice (n = 7). i, j Representative H&E sections of lung and histological injury scores (n = 8). 20×, Scale bar = 100 μm. 40×, Scale bar = 50 μm. k The lung W/D weight ratio (n = 10), l pulmonary capillary leakage determined with Evans blue dye (n = 8), m total protein in the BALF (n = 8), n the protein expression of inflammatory cytokines IL-17A, IL-6 and TNF-α (n = 8), and o Kaplan–Meier analysis of survival (n = 22 for Il-7r^flox/flox, n = 21 for Trdc^creERT2 Il-7r^flox/flox) in septic Il-7r^flox/flox mice and Trdc^creERT2 Il-7r^flox/flox mice. Data are shown as mean ± SD. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.001, ^****P < 0.0001. P values were calculated using two-sided Student’s unpaired t-test (f–h, j–n), and the Log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test (o). Source data and exact P values are provided as a Source Data file.