Project description:The transcription factor Thpok is essential for CD4 T cell development in the thymus and remains expressed in post-thymic CD4 T cells. We post-thymically inactivated Thpok and compared microarray gene expression in Thpok-deficient CD4 T cells to that in their wildtype CD4 or CD8 counterparts We show that Thpok constrains the transcriptional circuitry to maintain CD4+-lineage integrity in naM-CM-/ve cells and to couple effector differentiation to environmental cues after antigenic stimulation. Redundantly with the related factor LRF, Thpok is continuously needed to prevent the trans-differentiation of mature CD4+ into -CD8+ T cells. We activated naM-CM-/ve CD4 T cells (either wild-type or Thpok-deficient) and CD8 T cells (wild-type) in vitro under Th1 conditions. Differentiated effectors were sorted 4 days after activation into CD4+CD8- and CD4-CD8+ (wild-type) and CD4+CD8- and CD4+CD8+ (Thpok-deficient) subsets. Total RNA was extracted from sorted subsets and processed for microarray analyses (Affymetrix Mouse Exon 1.0 ST array) at the NCI microarray facility, following the manufacturerM-bM-^@M-^Ys recommendation. Data is from 3 replicates (except wild-type CD4-CD8+ cells, for which two samples only were processed), generated from two distinct cell preparations.
Project description:This study aimed to look for transcriptional differences between stage-matched thymic T cell subsets isolated from wildtype and condensin II mutant mice CD4+CD8+ cells from 8-12 week animals were separated according to the expression of CD71, in order to isolate proliferative and non-proliferative subsets Total RNA from FACS purified CD4+CD8+CD71+ and CD4+CD8+CD71- was isolated, and comparisons were drawn between immunophenotypically matched cells from wildtype and Caph2 mutant (I15N) mice.
Project description:Mouse thymocytes can be classified into four major subsets based on expression of CD4 and CD8 co-receptors. CD4-CD8- (double negative, DN) cells become CD4+CD8+ (double positive, DP) cells following productive T cell receptor (TCR) beta chain rearrangement. A small proportion of DP cells are selected through interaction of clonal TCRalpha/beta and MHC self peptide complex expressed on thymic stromal cells. DP cell expressing MHC class I-restricted TCR become CD4-CD8+ cells, which will finally differentiate into cytotoxic T cells, while MHC class II restricted selection generates CD4+CD8- helper lineage T cells. We used microarrays to identify genes important for thymocyte differentiation and lineage determination by profiling gene expression in different thymocyte subsets. Mouse thymocytes were divided into four subsets based on CD4, CD8a, and TCRb expression and purified by flw cytometry. FACS purified DN (CD4-CD8a-TCRb-), DP (CD4+CD8a+), CD4SP (CD4+CD8a-TCRbhi) and CD8SP (CD4-CD8a+TCRbhi) populations were lysed in Trizol, and provided to the Genomics Core Facility of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) for quality control, quantification, reverse transcription, labeling and hybridization to MOE430A 2.0 microarray chips (Affymetrix). Arrays were scanned per the manufacturer’s specifications for the Affymetrix MOE430v2 chip.
Project description:Conventional CD4 and CD8 single positive T cell lineages constitute the main differentiation pathway in the thymus. In human thymus, a minor TCRαβ differentiation pathway diverges from the early double positive stage, consisting of CD10+ PD-1+ cells. These cells are phenotypically and functionally similar to murine agonist-selected intraepithelial T lymphocyte precursors (IELps) which home to the small intestine. Here, the progeny of the human agonist-selected IEL lineage was identified in antigen-inexperienced cord blood (CB) with a polyclonal T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire exhibiting a bias towards early TCR alpha chain rearrangements and elevated autoreactive indices. Single-cell RNA sequencing allowed further delineation of this unconventional lineage in CB. Trajectory analysis, along with TCR repertoire analysis, transcriptomics and proteomics, suggests a precursor-progeny relationship with the thymic IELps. The distinct, heterogeneous CB population can now be defined as CD3+ TCRαβ+ CD4- CCR7- CD26-. Besides recent thymic emigrants, this population also consists of newly identified effector clusters and previously described populations: the suppressive NK receptor expressing CD8+ Treg population, the KIR/NKG2A+ EOMES+ virtual memory population and the CD8αα+ T cell populations. The population shows a discriminating stable HELIOS expression and is exclusively able to downregulate CD8β expression, resulting in double negative T cells. The functional properties of this population suggest that the cells expand on inflammatory cues and exert cytotoxic and proinflammatory activity.
Project description:Although lincRNAs are implicated in regulating gene expression in various tissues, little is known about lincRNA transcriptomes in the T cell lineages. Here we identify 1,524 lincRNAs in 42 T cell samples from early T cell progenitors to terminally differentiated T helper subsets. Our analysis revealed highly dynamic and cell-specific expression patterns of lincRNAs during T cell differentiation. Importantly, these lincRNAs are located in genomic regions enriched for protein-coding genes with immune-regulatory functions. Many of these transcripts are bound and regulated by the key T cell transcription factors, T-bet, GATA3, STAT4 and STAT6. We demonstrate that the lincRNA LincR-Ccr2-5'AS, together with GATA3, is an essential component of a regulatory circuit in Th2-specific gene expression. To obtain comprehensive profiles of lincRNA expression during the development and differentiation of T cell lineages, we purified CD4-CD8 double negative (DN) cells (DN1, DN2, DN3 and DN4), double positive (DP) cells (CD4+CD8+CD3low and CD4+CD8intCD69+), single positive (SP) CD4 and CD8 cells, and thymic-derived regulatory T cells (tTreg) from thymi of C57BL/6 mice. Additionally, we obtained Th1, Th2, Th17 and iTreg cells by in vitro differentiation of naM-CM-/ve CD4 T cells for a various length of time in culture (4 hrs, 8 hrs, 12 hrs, 24 hrs, 48 hrs, 72 hrs, 1 week, 2weeks). Total and/or polyadenylated RNAs from these cells was analyzed using RNA-Seq. To understand the regulation of lincRNAs by T cell master regulator T-bet, we compared the transcriptiomes between T-bet deficient Th1 cells and control Th1 cells. We did similar experiments and data analysis for STAT4 (Th1), GATA3 (Th2) and STAT6 (Th2). Finally, to address the funcation of a Th2-specifically expressed lincRNA, lincR-Ccr2-5'AS, we compared the transcriptomes between lincR-Ccr2-5'AS knockdown Th2 cells and control Th2 cells.
Project description:Mouse thymocytes can be classified into four major subsets based on expression of CD4 and CD8 co-receptors. CD4-CD8- (double negative, DN) cells become CD4+CD8+ (double positive, DP) cells following productive T cell receptor (TCR) beta chain rearrangement. A small proportion of DP cells are selected through interaction of clonal TCRalpha/beta and MHC self peptide complex expressed on thymic stromal cells. DP cell expressing MHC class I-restricted TCR become CD4-CD8+ cells, which will finally differentiate into cytotoxic T cells, while MHC class II restricted selection generates CD4+CD8- helper lineage T cells. We used microarrays to identify genes important for thymocyte differentiation and lineage determination by profiling gene expression in different thymocyte subsets.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as important players in the regulation of T-cell functionality. However, comprehensive insight into the extent of age-related miRNA changes in T cells is lacking. We established miRNA expression patterns of CD45RO- naïve and CD45RO+ memory T-cell subsets isolated from peripheral blood cells from young and elderly individuals. Unsupervised clustering of the miRNA expression data revealed an age-related clustering in the CD45RO- T cells, while CD45RO+ T cells clustered based on expression of CD4 and CD8. Seventeen miRNAs showed an at least 2-fold up- or downregulation in CD45RO- T cells obtained from young as compared to old donors. Validation on the same and independent samples revealed a statistically significant age-related upregulation of miR-21, miR-223 and miR-15a. In a T-cell subset analysis focusing on known age-related phenotypic changes, we showed significantly higher miR-21 and miR-223 levels in CD8+CD45RO-CCR7- TEMRA compared to CD45RO-CCR7+ TNAIVE-cells. Moreover, miR-21 but not miR-223 levels were significantly increased in CD45RO-CD31- post-thymic TNAIVE cells as compared to thymic CD45RO-CD31+ TNAIVE cells. Upon activation of CD45RO- TNAIVE cells we observed a significant induction of miR-21 especially in CD4+ T cells, while miR-223 levels significantly decreased only in CD4+ T cells. Besides composition and activation, we showed a borderline significant increase in miR-21 levels upon an increasing number of population doublings in CD4+ T-cell clones. Together, our results show that ageing related changes in miRNA expression are dominant in the CD45RO- T-cell compartment. The differential expression patterns can be explained by age related changes in T-cell composition, i.e. accumulation of CD8+ TEMRA and CD4+ post thymic expanded CD31- T cells and by cellular ageing, as demonstrated in a longitudinal clonal culture model. MicroRNA profiling was performed in eight T cell subsets: CD4 naive (CD3+CD4+CD45RO-), CD8 naive (CD3+CD4-CD45RO-), CD4 memory (CD3+CD4+CD45RO+) and CD8 memory (CD3+CD4-CD45RO+) T cells derived from 5 healthy young and 5 healthy old participants.
Project description:Gene expression profiling has opened new directions of investigation in scientific research, however, the need for substantial amount of biological material to perform these experiments limits significantly its application range. Here, we have developed procedures to perform microarray analysis on amplified cDNA from single cells, including primary T lymphocytes, and applied this technology to the study of CD4 and CD8 lineage differentiation. Gene expression profiling was performed on samples of 1000 cells from 10 different subpopulations, defining the major stages of post-thymic CD4+ or CD8+ T-cell differentiation. Surprisingly, our data revealed that while CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells evolve differently at early stages of differentiation, they become increasingly similar as they reach late differentiation stages. This suggests that the functional heterogeneity of antigen experienced CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells is located early during post-thymic differentiation, and that late stages of differentiation may represent a common end in the development of T-lymphocytes. Keywords: Gene expression profiling
Project description:Childhood T-ALL samples were compared with thymocyte subsets we compared key molecules of wnt signaling pathway in our cohort RNA was isolated from the bone marrow samples of childhood T-ALL patients at the time of diagnosis with a blast count over 90% and hybridized to Affymetrix GeneChip HU-133 Plus.2 .Thymic subsets were sorted by FACS and labeled as DN(CD3,CD4,CD8 neg), DP3poz tot(CD3,CD4,CD8poz), DP3neg(CD3neg,CD4,CD8poz), ISP(Immature single positive), SP4(Single positive CD4), SP8 (Single positive CD8).
Project description:The transcription factor Thpok is essential for CD4 T cell development in the thymus and remains expressed in post-thymic CD4 T cells. We post-thymically inactivated Thpok and compared microarray gene expression in Thpok-deficient CD4 T cells to that in their wildtype CD4 or CD8 counterparts We show that Thpok constrains the transcriptional circuitry to maintain CD4+-lineage integrity in naïve cells and to couple effector differentiation to environmental cues after antigenic stimulation. Redundantly with the related factor LRF, Thpok is continuously needed to prevent the trans-differentiation of mature CD4+ into -CD8+ T cells.