Foxp3 expression is required for the induction of therapeutic tissue tolerance
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ABSTRACT: CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) are essential for immune homeostasis and maintenance of self-tolerance. They are produced in the thymus and also generated de novo in the periphery in a TGFB dependent manner. Foxp3+ Treg are also required to achieve tolerance to transplanted tissues when induced by co-receptor or costimulation blockade. Using TCR transgenic mice to avoid issues of autoimmune pathology we show that Foxp3 expression is necessary and sufficient for tissue tolerance by coreceptor blockade. Moreover, the known need in tolerance induction for TGFB signalling to T cells, can wholly be explained by its role in induction of Foxp3, as such signalling proved dispensable for the suppressive process. We analysed the relative contribution of TGFB and Foxp3 on the transcriptome of TGFB induced Treg. TGFB elicited a large set of downregulated signature genes. The number of genes uniquely modulated due to the influence of Foxp3 alone was surprisingly limited. Retroviral conditional Foxp3 expression proved sufficient to confer transplant-suppressive potency on CD4+ T cells, and was lost once nuclear Foxp3 expression was extinguished. Thus despite the large genetic influence of TGFB exposure on iTreg the crucial Foxp3 influenced signature independent of TGFB is small. These data support a dual role for TGFB and Foxp3 in induced tolerance, where TGFB stimulates Foxp3 expression whose sustained expression is associated with acquisition of tolerance
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE39529 | GEO | 2012/10/03
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA171053
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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