Fig. 5: Aging features of naive T cells and CD8+ MAIT cells.
a,b, Scatter plot illustrating changes in the proportion of CD4+ (CD4_Naive_CCR7; left) and CD8+ naive T cells (CD8_Naive_LEF1; right) in total αβ T cells with aging from scRNA-seq (a) and CyTOF (b). c,d, Heatmap showing the row-scaled expression of M-DEGs in CD4_Naive_CCR7 (c) and CD8_Naive_LEF1 (d) cells across eight life stages (left), and line plots showing the expression trajectories of M-DEGs upregulated with age (right). Expression z-scores are shown. e, Dot plot showing the representative enriched biological processes of M-DEGs upregulated with age in CD4+ and CD8+ naive T cells. f,g, Scatter plots showing TCR repertoire diversities in CD4+ (CD4_Naive_CCR7; left) and CD8+ naive T cells (CD8_Naive_LEF1; right) across eight life stages, as measured by Shannon’s entropy (f) and the inverse Simpson index (g). h–j, Scatter plot illustrating the proportion changes of CD8_MAIT_SLC4A10 cells in total αβ T cells with aging from scRNA-seq (h) and CyTOF (i) analyses and their TCR repertoire diversities as measured by Shannon’s entropy (j) across eight life stages. k, Heatmap showing the expression of all the DEGs (left) and zoom-in on upregulated genes (right) in CD8_MAIT_SLC4A10 cells in adolescents (12–18 years old). l, Bar plots showing the representative enriched biological processes of upregulated (top) and downregulated (bottom) DEGs in CD8_MAIT_SLC4A10 cells in adolescents. m, GSEA enrichment plot for gene set ‘tuberculosis’ in CD8_MAIT_SLC4A10 cells in the adolescent group compared with other groups. n, Schematic diagram showing the design of MAIT cell’s bactericidal capability assay (left) and bar plot showing the bacteria load after MAIT cell co-culture. The P value was determined by two-sided unpaired Wilcoxon rank-sum test (right, n = 9 each). P values in e, l and m were determined by hypergeometric test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant in e, l, m and n. The black lines indicate LOESS regression in a, b, f and g. CFU, colony forming unit; GSEA, gene set enrichment analysis.
