Project description:The goals of this study were to gain a better understanding of the heterogeneity and gene signatures of allogeneic PD-1+ CD8 T cells isolated from the spleen of GvHD B6 recipients of Balb/c T cells.
Project description:Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a severe complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation driven by activated allogeneic T cells. Here, we identify a distinct subset of T cell factor-1 (TCF1)+ CD8+ T cells in mouse allogeneic and xenogeneic transplant models of acute GvHD. These TCF1+ cells exhibit distinct characteristics compared to TCF1- cells, including lower expression of inhibitory receptors and higher expression of costimulatory molecules. Notably, the TCF1+ subset displays exclusive proliferative potential and could differentiate into TCF1- effector cells upon antigenic stimulation. Pathway analyses support the role of TCF1+ and TCF1- subsets as resource cells and effector cells, respectively. Furthermore, the TCF1+ CD8+ T cell subset is primarily present in the spleen and exhibits a resident phenotype. These findings provide insight into the differentiation of allogeneic and xenogeneic CD8+ T cells and have implications for the development of immunotherapeutic strategies targeting acute GvHD.
Project description:Regulatory T (Treg) cells are important regulators of the immune system and have versatile functions for the homeostasis and repair of tissues. They express the forkhead box transcription factor Foxp3 as a lineage-defining protein. In mature Treg cells, the Foxp3 core promoter is unmethylated indicating that this area could harbor a transcription factor complex to initiate or repress gene expression, respectively. We used an unbiased method to identify Foxp3-promoter-binding transcription factors (TFs) by inverted chromatin immunoprecipitation (IP) followed by quantitative mass spectrometry. We identified several candidate factors which showed Foxp3-promoter suppressive capacity, one of which was T-cell factor 1 (Tcf1). Using viral overexpression and CRISPR/Cas knockout studies, we identified Tcf1 as a repressor of Foxp3 expression in primary conventional CD4 T cells (Tconv). In Tcf1-deficient animals, increased levels of Foxp3intermediateCD25negative T cells were identified in secondary lymphoid tissues, implicating that Tcf1 protects Foxp3-negative T cells from inadvertent Foxp3 expression.
Project description:The aim of this study is to assess the Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) efficacy in the prevention of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) complications and particularly Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD).
The hypothesis of this study is that allogeneic FMT may improve outcomes of these patients.
Project description:This phase II trial studies how well cyclophosphamide works in preventing chronic graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplant in patients with hematological malignancies. Giving chemotherapy and total-body irradiation before transplantation helps stop the growth of cancer cells and prevents the patient’s immune system from rejecting the donor’s stem cells. Healthy stem cells from a donor that are infused into the patient help the patient’s bone marrow make blood cells; red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Sometimes, however, the transplanted donor cells can cause an immune response against the body’s normal cells, which is called graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Giving cyclophosphamide after transplant may prevent this from happening or may make chronic GVHD less severe.
Project description:The HMG-box factor Tcf1 is required during T-cell development in the thymus and mediates the nuclear response to Wnt signals. Tcf1-/- mice have previously been characterized and show developmental blocks at the CD4-CD8- double negative (DN) to CD4+CD8+ double positive transition. Due to the blocks in T-cell development, Tcf1-/- mice normally have a very small thymus. Unexpectedly, a large proportion of Tcf1-/- mice spontaneously develop thymic lymphomas with 50% of mice developing a thymic lymphoma/leukemia at the age of 16 wk. These lymphomas are clonal, highly metastatic, and paradoxically show high Wnt signaling when crossed with Wnt reporter mice and have high expression of Wnt target genes Lef1 and Axin2. In wild-type thymocytes, Tcf1 is higher expressed than Lef1, with a predominance of Wnt inhibitory isoforms. Loss of Tcf1 as repressor of Lef1 leads to high Wnt activity and is the initiating event in lymphoma development, which is exacerbated by activating Notch1 mutations. Thus, Notch1 and loss of Tcf1 functionally act as collaborating oncogenic events. Tcf1 deficiency predisposes to the development of thymic lymphomas by ectopic up-regulation of Lef1 due to lack of Tcf1 repressive isoforms and frequently by cooperating activating mutations in Notch1. Tcf1 therefore functions as a T-cell‚Äìspecific tumor suppressor gene, besides its established role as a Wnt responsive transcription factor. Thus, Tcf1 acts as a molecular switch between proliferative and repressive signals during T-lymphocyte development in the thymus. Using the Tcf1-/- DeltaVII/DeltaVII knockout mouse (Verbeek et al. Nature 1995), thymocytes of 17 mice (5 control Tcf+/-, 4 Tcf-/- and 8 Tcf-/- with thymic lymphoma) were homogenized for RNA isolation using Qiagen RNeasy minicolumns. The quantity and quality of total RNA was determined using spectrophotometry (Nanodrop) and an Agilent Bioanalyzer. One ¬µg of RNA was used to generate cRNA using Affymetrix One cycle cDNA synthesis kit (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA, USA), after which the samples were biotinylated using an Affymetrix IVT labeling kit (Affymetrix). The samples were hybridized overnight at 42¬?C to GeneChip mouse genome 430 2.0 Arrays (Affymetrix). Washing and staining steps were performed on a Fluidics station 450, and the Genechips were scanned using a GeneChip scanner 3000 (Affymetrix) at the Department of Immunology, Erasmus Medical Center. Raw data were normalized and summarized using Robust Multichip Average (RMA) method. The experiment consists of 5 control Tcf+/- thymi, 4 Tcf-/- thymi and 8 Tcf-/- thymus samples with thymic lymphoma.
Project description:Primary human cells cultured in 3D organoid format have great promise as potential regenerative cellular therapies, but their immunogenicity has not yet been fully characterized. In this study, we use in vitro co-cultures and in vivo humanized mouse experimental models to examine the human immune response to autologous and allogeneic primary cholangiocyte organoids (PCOs). Our data demonstrate that PCOs upregulate the expression of HLA-I and HLA-II in inflammatory conditions. The immune response to allogeneic PCOs is driven by both HLA-I and HLA-II and is substantially ameliorated by donor-recipient HLA matching. Autologous PCOs induce a low-level immune infiltration into the graft site, while allogeneic cells display evolving stages of immune rejection in vivo. Our findings have important implications for the design and clinical translation of autologous and allogeneic organoid cellular therapies.
Project description:Comparison of epigenome and Tcf1 occupancy between control and Tcf1/Lef1-deficient CD8 T cells Control mice or those are deficient for Tcf1 and Lef1 transcription factors (deleted by CD4-Cre) were used to isolate thymocytes. The thymocytes were surface-stained to identify TCRbeta high, CD69â, CD24â CD8+ subsets. These cells were sorted for ChIPseq analysis of various histone marks. Control mice or those are deficient for Tcf1 (deleted by CD4-Cre) were used to isolate thymocytes. The splenocytes were surface-stained to identify TCRbeta high, CD8+ subsets. These cells were sorted for ChIPseq analysis of Tcf1 binding locations.