Description
We identified a rare subset of autoreactive lymphocytes with a hybrid phenotype of T and B cells including coexpression of TCR and BCR and key lineage markers of both cell types (hereafter referred to as dual expressers or DEs). To investigate the dual phenotype of DEs at single cell resolution, we examined their transcriptomes using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). We sorted individual DEs, Bcon and Tcon cells from PBMCs of one type I diabetes patient and analyzed the transcriptomes of 34 DEs, 20 Bcon , and 23 Tcon using the plate-based SMART-seq2 protocol (Tirosh and Suva, 2018; Tirosh et al., 2016). Our results show that DEs have uniquely expressed genes along with genes encoding lineage markers of T and B cells. Overall design: Examination of the transcriptomes of three cell types, Des (Dual Expressors), Bcon (Conventional B) and Tcon (Conventional T) cells from the PBMCs of one type I diabetes patient