RNA-seq analysis of human peripheral blood Treg cells stratified into four equal fractions according to CD38 intensity

Mouse Tregs undergo robust apoptosis in response to even low concentrations of ATP or NAD⁺, whereas human Tregs show markedly reduced sensitivity to these nucleotides. In our preliminary analyses, however, we observed that a subset of human Tregs expressing low levels of CD38 exhibited increased sensitivity to ATP/NAD⁺.

To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying this enhanced sensitivity, human peripheral blood Tregs were stratified into four fractions based on CD38 expression levels and subjected to RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis.