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In Vitro Resident Memory CD8 T Cell Differentiation Using Epithelial Organoid-T Cell Co-culture System
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In Vitro Resident Memory CD8 T Cell Differentiation Using Epithelial Organoid-T Cell Co-culture System

Published on: February 3, 2026

Human decidual tissue contains differentiated CD8+ effector-memory T cells with unique properties

Tamara Tilburgs1, Dorrith Schonkeren, Michael Eikmans

  • 1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Tilburgs@FAS.Harvard.edu

Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)
|September 7, 2010
PubMed

During pregnancy, maternal lymphocytes at the fetal-maternal interface play a key role in the immune acceptance of the allogeneic fetus. Recently, CD4(+)CD25(bright) regulatory T cells have been shown to be concentrated in decidual tissue, where they are able to suppress fetus-specific and nonspecific immune responses. Decidual CD8(+) T cells are the main candidates to recognize and respond to fetal HLA-C at the fetal-maternal interface, but data on the characteristics of these cells are limited. In this study we examined the decidual and peripheral CD8(+) T cell pool for CD45RA, CCR7, CD28, and CD27 expression, using nine-color flow cytometry. Our data demonstrate that decidual CD8(+) T cells mainly consist of differentiated CD45RA(-)CCR7(-) effector-memory (EM) cells, whereas unprimed CD45RA(+)CCR7(+) naive cells are almost absent. Compared with peripheral blood EM CD8(+) T cells, the decidual EM CD8(+) T cells display a significantly reduced expression of perforin and granzyme B, which was confirmed by immunohistochemistry of decidual tissue sections. Interestingly, quantitative PCR analysis demonstrates an increased perforin and granzyme B mRNA content in decidual EM CD8(+) T cells in comparison with peripheral blood EM CD8(+) T cells. The presence of high levels of perforin and granzyme B mRNA in decidual EM T cells suggests that decidual CD8(+) T cells pursue alternative means of EM cell differentiation that may include a blockade of perforin and granzyme B mRNA translation into functional perforin and granzyme B proteins. Regulation of decidual CD8(+) T cell differentiation may play a crucial role in maternal immune tolerance to the allogeneic fetus.

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