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CUTTING EDGE |






* Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305;
Department of Pediatrics, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, Oregon 97239; and
Department of Endocrinology and
Department of Pulmonology, Hospital General de Niños Ricardo Gutiérrez, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| Abstract |
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-chain cytokine receptor and perforin, and activation-induced expressions of CD154 and IFN-
were normal. These results indicate that STAT5b propagates an important IL-2-mediated signal for the in vivo accumulation of functional regulatory T cells. | Introduction |
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The roles of IL-2 and IL-2-dependent STAT5 activation in regulating human immune responses in vivo remain poorly understood. The high-affinity IL-2R consists of CD25, which is unique to IL-2R, the IL-2R
1 chain (CD122), and the common
-chain (
c), which is also a component of IL-4R, IL-7R, IL-9R, IL-15R, and IL-21R (9). Human CD25 deficiency, which specifically ablates high-affinity signaling by IL-2, results in an abnormal accumulation of lymphocytes in extralymphoid tissues, suggesting perturbed homeostasis, and in increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections (10), which indicates a role for IL-2 in human T cell effector function. This latter role may be species dependent, because blockade of IL-2/IL-2R signaling in mice impairs Treg development and promotes lymphoid hyperplasia and autoimmunity but does not appear to substantially decrease T cell effector function (11, 12, 13).
We examined the immunologic consequence of human STAT5b deficiency focusing on IL-2 and its signal transduction pathway in influencing effector T cell and Treg immunity.
| Materials and Methods |
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PBMCs were isolated (14) from a 20-year-old STAT5b-deficient (STAT5bA630P/A630P genotype) patient (15), her STAT5bwt/A630P (where wt is wild type) genotype parents, and from age-matched controls who were either healthy or immunosuppressed (control (IS)) similarly as the patient, who was on chronic immunosuppressive glucocorticoid therapy (0.51 mg/kg/day prednisone or equivalent for >1 year). Peripheral T cells were either used directly or primed into blasts by incubation with 10 µg/ml PHA (Pharmacia) and 100 U/ml recombinant human IL-2 (Chiron). Complete RPMI 1640 medium (14) was used for in vitro incubation. CD4+CD25high (Treg-enriched) and CD4+CD25 (Treg-depleted) cell populations were isolated from PBMCs using magnetic beads (Miltenyi Biotec) with a final cell purity of 8795%. T cell blasts were generated as described above from CD4+CD25high or CD4+CD25 T cells.
Ab staining and flow cytometric analysis
Staining with mAbs (purchased from Caltag Laboratories or BD Biosciences, unless indicated otherwise) or appropriate mouse isotype controls (Caltag Laboratories) was performed (14) and analyzed using a FACScan flow cytometer and CellQuest software (BD Biosciences). Paraformaldehyde-fixed cells were used, except for annexin-V and propidium iodide staining.
Western blotting
Protein (15 µg/lane) from T cell blasts was electrophoresed, blotted, and probed with STAT5a (L20; rabbit polyclonal IgG) or STAT5b (G-2; mouse mAb IgG1) Abs (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) as described (15).
IFN-
and CD69 expression
PBMCs were stimulated with 10 µg/ml Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB) (Toxin Technologies) or CD3/CD28 mAb microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec) for 16 h, with 10 µg/ml brefeldin A (Sigma-Aldrich) added for the last 5 h. Cells were analyzed as described (14) after staining with PE-Cy5-CD4, allophycocyanin (AC)-CD8, PE-CD69, and FITC-IFN-
mAb.
CD154 expression
PBMCs (1 x 106) were treated with CD3/CD28 mAb microbeads for 6 h and stained with CD154 mAb (clone 5C8) or an isotype control and PE-conjugated goat-anti-mouse IgG (Caltag Laboratories).
CD25 and
c staining
PBMCs (5 x 105/well) were incubated in 96-well round-bottom microtiter plates coated with 3.5 µg/ml purified CD3 mAb 64.1 (Bristol-Myers Squibb) with or without 10 U/ml recombinant human IL-2 for 24 h. T cell blasts or CD3 mAb-activated PBMCs were stained with PE-Cy5-CD4, AC-CD25, and PE-
c mAbs.
Perforin expression by CD8+ T cells
PBMCs incubated with or without IL-2 (1.0 x 103 U/ml) for 3 days were permeabilized/fixed (BD Biosciences) and stained with FITC-perforin and PE-CD8 mAbs.
Annexin-V staining and propidium iodide staining
T cell blasts were incubated with annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide (Oncogene Sciences) and AC-CD4 mAb.
Intracellular staining for Foxp3
Purified CD4+CD25high or CD4+CD25 T cells or their blasts were fixed/permeabilized, blocked with 2% normal rat serum, and stained with FITC-Foxp3 mAb (eBioscience) or isotype control mAb for 30 min.
Treg-mediated suppression of CD4 T cell proliferation
CD4+CD25high T cells (3.75 x 103/well) were incubated in 96-well round-bottom plates with either a 1:1 or 1:4 ratio of autologous or allogeneic CD4+CD25 T cells, 3.75 x 104 allogeneic irradiated (4000 rad) APCs (PBMCs depleted of CD3+ T cells using magnetic beads from StemCell Technologies), and 5.0 µg/ml purified HIT3a CD3 mAb (BD Biosciences). Control conditions lacked either CD4+CD25high or CD4+CD25 T cells. [3H]Thymidine (1.0 µCi/well) was added during the last 16 h of a 7-day culture, and cellular incorporation was determined by liquid scintillation counting.
Treg cytotoxicity assay
Autologous CD4+CD25 T cells were activated with 2 µg/ml PHA for 3 days, labeled with 51Cr, and added at 1 x 103/well to 96-well round-bottom plates. CD4+CD25high T cells or their blasts were added as effector cells, plates were incubated at 37°C for 4 h, and 100 µl of supernatant was counted for gamma irradiation.
| Results and Discussion |
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20% of the amount of surface CD25 compared with control cells, based on the mean fluorescence intensity measurements (Fig. 1C), a phenotype that would be expected to reduce IL-2-mediated signaling. Interestingly, STAT5bwt/A630P T cell blasts also had a modest but consistently lower CD25 expression than did control cells (Fig. 1C). A substantially greater percentage of the STAT5bA630P/A630P T cell blasts was apoptotic as compared with control cells (Fig. 1D), and this likely accounted for the poor IL-2-mediated expansion of STAT5bA630P/A630P T cells from PBMCs compared with T cells from the STAT5bA630P/wt parents or from control (IS) donors (A. C. Cohen and D. B. Lewis, unpublished observations).
We next evaluated freshly isolated STAT5bA630P/A630P T cells for activation- and IL-2-dependent protein expression and effector function. CD154 (Fig. 2A), CD69, and IFN-
expression in response to SEB (Fig. 2B) or CD3/CD28 mAb stimulation (data not shown) and perforin up-regulation in response to IL-2 (Fig. 2C) by STAT5bA630P/A630P T cells were similar to those of T cells from healthy controls or control (IS) donors. As with T cell blasts, CD25 up-regulation by STAT5bA630P/A630P CD4 T cells in response to IL-2 was decreased compared with control T cells, whereas the up-regulation by IL-2 of
c was normal (Fig. 2D). These results indicated that STAT5b deficiency selectively impaired the up-regulation of CD25 by IL-2 in freshly isolated T cells but spared other IL-2- and activation-dependent functions.
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10% and
25% of that of control (IS) and STAT5bwt/A630P donors, respectively. Foxp3 expression by T cell blasts generated in vitro from STAT5bA630P/A630P CD4+CD25high T cells remained undetectable, and CD25 expression was also lower relative to the basal level, whereas control (IS) CD4+CD25high T cell blasts retained high levels of both proteins. As expected, CD4+CD25 T cells or blasts from all subjects lacked detectable Foxp3 (data not shown), consistent with the CD4+ Tregs being contained mainly in the CD25high subset. Interestingly, STAT5bwt/A630P CD4+CD25high T cell blasts acquired Foxp3 levels similar to those of control (IS) blasts, indicating that STAT5b haplo insufficiency did not impair responsiveness to activation- and IL-2-mediated signals for increased Foxp3 (19). Therefore, complete STAT5b deficiency impaired the peripheral accumulation of CD4+CD25high Tregs and their generation in vitro (18, 20). Whether this decreased accumulation in vivo is the result of decreased intrathymic and/or peripheral Treg generation or, once generated, by impaired Treg survival or homeostatic proliferation, remains to be determined.
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Our findings indicate an important and unexpected role in humans for STAT5b signaling in CD4+CD25high Treg immunity and, in contrast, only a modest impact on the size of the peripheral T cell compartment and its effector function. This Treg deficiency was associated with a role for STAT5b that was not redundant with that of STAT5a in the up-regulation of CD25 gene expression by IL-2. The major immunological phenotype of STAT5b haplo insufficiency was also on the up-regulation of CD25 by IL-2 and on Treg immunity. In contrast to mice (12), the phenotype of human CD25 deficiency (10) and ability of CD25 mAb to block allograft rejection suggest that IL-2R signaling in humans may also be important for T cell effector function in vivo. Our results suggest that optimal human Treg immunity, but not most T cell effector functions, requires either higher levels of IL-2 signaling and/or a unique transcriptional effect of STAT5b. If high levels of IL-2 signaling are required for human Treg immunity, it is plausible that the STAT5b-dependent up-regulation of CD25 by IL-2 may play an important role in achieving such signaling.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Disclosures |
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| Footnotes |
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1 This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant K08 AI057961-01 (to A.C.C), an American Society of Hematology Fellow Basic Science Award (to A.C.C), the Jeffrey Modell Center for Primary Immunodeficiency (to D.B.L), and a Berry Fellowship in Childrens Health (to K.C.N.). ![]()
2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. David B. Lewis, Division of Immunology and Transplantation Biology, Center for Clinical Sciences Research Building, Room 2115b, Stanford University School of Medicine, 269 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5164. E-mail address: dblewis{at}stanford.edu ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: Treg, CD4+CD25high regulatory T cell; AC, allophycocyanin; Foxp3, forkhead box P3;
c, common
chain; control (IS), control treated with immunosuppressive glucocorticoid therapy; SEB, Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B; wt, wild type. ![]()
Received for publication March 7, 2006. Accepted for publication June 29, 2006.
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