Fig. 6: Food-derived yeasts can activate cross-reactive T_H1-CTLs in patients with CD.

a–c, PBMCs of healthy donors and patients with CD were stimulated with lysates of different cheese types and reactive CD4⁺ T cells analyzed by ARTE. a, Dot plot examples. Absolute cell counts after magnetic CD154⁺ enrichment from 1 × 10⁷ PBMCs are indicated. b, CD154⁺ T_mem cell frequencies and IFN-γ production in response to different cheese types (HD, n = 5; ASCA⁺ CD, n = 5). c, Ex vivo cytotoxic marker expression of reactive CD154⁺ T_mem cells in response to different cheese types (HD, n = 5; ASCA+ CD, n = 5). d, Reactive CD154⁺ T_mem cells from patients with CD who are ASCA⁺ were isolated after stimulation with gorgonzola lysate and expanded. Dot plots show reactivity on restimulation with the indicated antigens. e, Cross-reactivity of expanded gorgonzola-activated cells from patients with CD who are ASCA⁺ to different microbial and control antigens (Kluyveromyces lactis, Penicllium camemberti, P. roqueforti, Geotrichum candidum, n = 2; all other antigens, n = 6). f,g, TCR-transgenic T cells restimulated with lysates of gorgonzola or different fungal species commonly found in cheese. f, Dot plot examples with percentage of reactive CD154⁺TNF⁺ cells shown for one TCR-α/β construct. g, Cross-reactivity of the individual TCR-transgenic T cells (n = 7) in relation to stimulation with S. cerevisiae. Each symbol in b, c and e represents one individual donor and in g one TCR-transgenic T cell line. Truncated violin plots with quartiles and range are shown in b, c and e and mean values with s.e.m. in g. Statistical differences were obtained using the two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test in b.