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CUTTING EDGE |
Section of Immunobiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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The molecular mechanisms by which these cytokines regulate T cell differentiation have been extensively investigated. Specifically, IL-4, which is preferentially secreted by Th2 cells and is also required for their differentiation, has been shown to up-regulate expression of the transcription factor GATA-3 (2). GATA-3, which plays a crucial role in Th2 differentiation and cytokine secretion (3, 4), in turn inhibits the expression of IL-12Rß2 (2), which blocks the development of Th1 cells. In contrast, IL-12 inhibits GATA-3 expression in developing Th cells (2), thereby blocking differentiation of Th2 cells.
Another cytokine that plays a critical role in Th differentiation is TGF-ß. Addition of TGF-ß to Th1 or Th2 cultures abrogates T cell differentiation into either Th subset (5, 6), although it does not prevent the T cells from expressing activation markers (e.g., CD44high CD45RBlow). Although TGF-ß has been shown to inhibit T cell proliferation (7), it inhibits Th differentiation even under conditions in which T cells proliferate normally (5). Although CD4+ T cells differentiated in the presence of TGF-ß were not capable of secreting any of the Th1 or Th2 effector cytokines, they retained their pluripotency, as demonstrated by the ability of these cells to differentiate into Th1 or Th2 type cells upon secondary culture in the absence of TGF-ß. The important role of TGF-ß in CD4+ T cell differentiation in vivo has also been supported recently by our studies with mice that express a dominant negative TGF-ß receptor under a T cell-specific promoter (8). T cells from these mice are insensitive to TGF-ß signaling, and a large proportion of these cells "spontaneously" differentiates in vivo into both Th1 and Th2 subsets. The molecular mechanisms by which TGF-ß prevents the differentiation of T cells presently are not known. The studies reported here were undertaken to determine the mechanism by which TGF-ß controls Th2 differentiation.
| Materials and Methods |
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Moth cytochrome c (MCC)2-specific (AND) TCR transgenic mice were obtained from Dr. K. Bottomly, and wild-type B10.BR mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and were used at 68 wk of age.
T cell activation and differentiation
CD4+ T cells from either AND TCR
transgenic mice or wild-type B10.BR mice were prepared as described
(8). rmIL-12 (3.5 ng/ml; Genetics Institute, Cambridge,
MA) and anti-IL-4 (11B11, 10 µg/ml) were added for Th1
development; recombinant mIL-4 (1000 U/ml; Endogen, Woburn, MA) and
anti-IFN-
(XMG1.2, 10 µg/ml) were added for Th2 development.
Recombinant huIL-2 (40 U/ml; Biogen, Cambridge, MA) was added to all
stimulation conditions, and where indicated, recombinant huTGF-ß1 (3
ng/ml; R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN) was added to the culture
media.
Retroviral constructs and retroviral transduction
GFP-RV and GATA-3-RV retroviral vectors were provided by Dr. K. Murphy (Washington University, St. Louis, MO) (2). Phoenix-Eco packaging cell line (gift of Dr. G. Nolan, Stanford University, Stanford, CA) was transfected according to the protocol of Dr. Nolan. Primary T cells were activated with Ag as described, infected after 24 h using 1 ml of viral supernatant and 6 µg/ml of Lipofectamine (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD), and incubated at 37°C for 24 h before being supplied with fresh media and expanded until day 5 after primary activation.
Western blot analysis
Total T cell lysates were prepared as described
(8), resolved by 10% SDS-PAGE, transferred to a
polyvinylidene difluoride membrane (Millipore, Bedford, MA), and probed
with either anti-IL-4R
, anti-IL-2R
, anti-GATA-3 Abs
(all obtained from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA), or
anti-phospho(Tyr641)-STAT-6 Ab (NEB, Beverly, MA), and
developed using an enhanced chemiluminescence system.
FACS analyses
Staining was performed as described (8). Ten thousand events were collected, and after gating on GFP+ or GFP- cells, intracellular cytokine staining was analyzed. Gates for cytokine staining were set using isotype-matched control Ab staining. Gates for GFP (FL1)-positive cells were determined using nontransduced controls.
ELISA
Cytokine levels in tissue culture supernatants were assayed by ELISA using Ab pairs for IL-5 and IL-4 (PharMingen, San Diego, CA) according to the manufacturers recommendations.
RNA preparation and semiquantitative RT-PCR
RNA and cDNA were prepared as described. Subsequently, each sample was subjected to PCR with sense and anti-sense primers for ß-actin and GATA-3. Primers were of the following sequences: for ß-actin, 5'-GTGGGCCGCTCTAGGCACCA (sense) and 5'-CGGTTGGCCTTAGGGTTCAGGGGGG (antisense); and for GATA-3, 5'-TCTGGAGGAGGAAACGCTAATGG (sense) and 5'-GAACTCTTCGCACACTTGGAGACTC (antisense). To specifically amplify mRNA, and not contaminating genomic DNA, primers for both ß-actin and GATA-3 were designed to span an intron. PCRs were performed at different numbers of cell cycles to ensure that comparison of PCR products for various samples is performed at the linear part of an amplification curve.
| Results and Discussion |
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Because IL-4 signaling is crucial for Th2 differentiation, we examined
how TGF-ß affects elements of the IL-4 signaling pathway. As seen in
Fig. 2
A, stimulation of naive
T cells with anti-CD3/CD28 mAbs led to the up-regulation in
expression of both chains of the IL-4 receptor (IL-4R
and the common
-chain). This up-regulation was not affected by addition of TGF-ß
to the culture media. Therefore, inhibition of Th2 differentiation by
TGF-ß does not occur through the inhibition of IL-4 receptor
expression. We considered it possible that TGF-ß may interfere with
signaling through the IL-4 receptor. To test this hypothesis, we
examined whether TGF-ß inhibits phosphorylation of
STAT-6 in response to IL-4. Preincubation of naive T cells with TGF-ß
did not affect the ability of IL-4 to induce
phosphorylation of STAT-6 (Fig. 2
B).
Therefore, the inhibition of Th2 differentiation by TGF-ß is
downstream of IL-4 receptor-proximal events. Because it has been
previously demonstrated that STAT-6 signaling is necessary for the
induction of GATA-3, an essential factor for Th2 differentiation
(3), we examined the effect of TGF-ß on GATA-3
expression. In agreement with previously reported data
(2), stimulation of CD4+ T cells
with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 led to a significant increase in
the level of GATA-3 expression in 20 h, and addition of IL-4 to
the culture resulted in even higher levels of GATA-3 expression (Fig. 2
C). Strikingly, addition of TGF-ß1 dramatically inhibited
GATA-3 expression induced under both of these culture conditions (Fig. 2
B). Results of RT-PCR analysis of the mRNA prepared from
CD4+ T cells stimulated with or without TGF-ß
revealed that TGF-ß inhibits the induction of GATA-3 expression at
the mRNA level (Fig. 2
D). This inhibition of GATA-3 was
specific and downstream of STAT-6, because TGF-ß does not inhibit
expression of IL-4R
and IL-2R
, and the inhibition probably does
not involve IL-4 receptor proximal signaling events because TGF-ß
does not inhibit STAT-6 phosphorylation. Furthermore,
because under the conditions tested, TGF-ß does not affect T cell
proliferation (Fig. 1
), it is unlikely that TGF-ß inhibits GATA-3
expression by interfering with TCR/CD3 signaling.
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To examine the effects of TGF-ß on the cytokine-producing ability of
cells ectopically expressing GATA-3, we sorted
GFP+ and GFP- cells from
different groups, restimulated them with Ag, and measured the cytokines
that were secreted after 20 h of restimulation. As seen in Fig. 3
, the presence of TGF-ß completely
inhibited the ability of T cells differentiated under Th2 conditions to
produce IL-4 and IL-5. In contrast, T cells ectopically expressing
GATA-3 were markedly resistant to the inhibitory effects of TGF-ß
(Fig. 3
, filled columns). CD4+ cells transduced
with GATA-3 and differentiated under Th1 conditions could also produce
significant levels of IL-4 and IL-5, and this production was also
resistant to inhibition by TGF-ß (Fig. 3
). This TGF-ß-mediated
inhibition of Th2 cytokine production is likely due to a block in
differentiation of T cells into Th2 effector cells by TGF-ß rather
than a block in cytokine production by the differentiated cells because
TGF-ß was removed before restimulation of the differentiated T cells.
Furthermore, we found that TGF-ß had no effect on IL-4 and IL-5
production by an established Th2 clone, D10 (data not shown).
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The ability of TGF-ß to inhibit Th differentiation through inhibition of GATA-3 expression may provide a general mechanism to redirect or switch differentiation of many different cell types. Studies using a RAG2 knockout complementation system in conjunction with embryonic stem cells with a homozygous GATA-3-null mutation (GATA-3-/-) revealed an essential role for GATA-3 in thymocyte differentiation, as development of GATA-3-null thymocytes was blocked at the very early double negative stage (11). Recently GATA-3 has been shown to be the key regulator of CD4+ Th differentiation (2, 3). Timely induction and repression of GATA-3 expression seem to be critical coordinators of differentiation in different tissues. In this report we demonstrate that TGF-ß is an important regulator of GATA-3 expression in differentiating mature CD4+ T cells. Although we do not yet know whether TGF-ß is responsible for the regulation of GATA-3 in cells other than CD4+ T cells, it has been recently demonstrated that BMP (a TGF-ß family member) is required for Xenopus embryo patterning and achieves this, at least in part, through the inhibition of GATA-3 expression (12). Given the important role of TGF-ß and its other family members in embryonic development (13, 14, 15), it is conceivable that regulation of GATA-3 by TGF-ß superfamily members is an important process required at multiple stages during embryonic development and tissue differentiation.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Abbreviations used in this paper: MCC, moth cytochrome c; AND MCC-specific; CFSE, 5,6-carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimyl ester; GFP, green fluorescence protein. ![]()
Received for publication July 12, 2000. Accepted for publication August 24, 2000.
| References |
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