bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/721258; this version posted August 1, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Single cell transcriptome atlas of immune cells in human small 2 intestine and in celiac disease 3 4 Nader Atlasy1,a,4, Anna Bujko2,4, Peter B Brazda1,a, Eva Janssen-Megens1,a , Espen S. 5 Bækkevold2, Jørgen Jahnsen3, Frode L. Jahnsen2, Hendrik G. Stunnenberg1,a,* 6 7 8 1Department of Molecular Biology, Science Faculty, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The 9 Netherlands. 10 2 Department of Pathology, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, 11 Oslo, Norway 12 3 Department of Gastroenterology, Akershus University Hospital and University of Oslo, 13 Oslo, Norway. 14 15 acurrent address: Princess Maxima Centre for Pediatric Oncology, Heidelberglaan 25, 3584 16 CS Utrecht 17 18 19 4These authors contributed equally to this study 20 21 22 *Corresponding author:
[email protected] 23 24 25 26 Celiac disease (CeD) is an autoimmune disorder in which ingestion of dietary gluten 27 triggers an immune reaction in the small intestine1,2. The CeD lesion is characterized by 28 crypt hyperplasia, villous atrophy and chronic inflammation with accumulation of 29 leukocytes both in the lamina propria (LP) and in the epithelium3, which eventually 30 leads to destruction of the intestinal epithelium1 and subsequent digestive complications 31 and higher risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma4. A lifetime gluten-free diet is currently the 32 only available treatment5. Gluten-specific LP CD4 T cells and cytotoxic intraepithelial 33 CD8+ T cells are thought to be central in disease pathology1,6-8, however, CeD is a 34 complex immune-mediated disorder and to date the findings are mostly based on 35 analysis of heterogeneous cell populations and on animal models.