Fig. 4: Effects of tobacco smoke exposure on γδ T cell populations in mice.

Cell clustering form single-cell targeted transcriptome analysis (TTA) data was performed on 2024 γδ T cells from total T cells, with 422 cells from airways, 793 cells from air-par, 763 cells from parenchyma, and 46 cells from spleen. a UMAP showing the scRNA-seq clusters of 4299 γδ T cells. b Differential representation of γδ T cell clusters. c Scaled gene expression. d Projection of the top 1 frequent TCR clones (red dots) onto γδ T cell clusters. e Parallel plots showing a correlation in the airways between the frequency of V gene usage and its pairing with Il17a expression in relation to the progression of tobacco smoke exposure. Clones (represented by lines) shared are colored: Top 1 (red), top 2 (blue), top 3 (yellow), and all other clones with low frequency (gray). The number of clones/cells for CON, 2 M and 6 M are also shown. f Bar graphs illustrating the frequency of TCR clones in γδ T cells in the airways over time of tobacco smoke exposure, with the number of cells at each time point (CON, 2 M, and 6 M) shown at the top of the bars. g Bar graphs showing the proportion of γ6δ4 T cells expressing Il17a in the airways in response to the duration of tobacco smoke exposure. The top of the bars indicates the number of γ6δ4 T cells at the three time points (CON, 2 M, and 6 M). CON: air control group, pooled from 3 biological replicates, each comprising cells from 20 mice (total n = 60 mice). 2 M: 2-month tobacco smoke exposure group, pooled from 3 biological replicates, each comprising cells from 4 mice (total n = 12 mice). 6 M: 6-month tobacco smoke exposure group, pooled from 3 biological replicates, each comprising cells from 4 mice (total n = 12 mice).