title: Flow cytometric profiling of mature and developing regulatory T cells in the thymus.
abstract: Natural Regulatory T (Treg) cells are a subset of CD4(+) T cells characterized by expression of the transcription factor Foxp3 and the ability to suppress immune responses. Treg cells develop in the thymus in response to highly specific interactions between the T cell receptor (TCR) and self-antigens. These processes can be recapitulated in antigen-specific systems using transgenic mice that coexpress a TCR with its cognate peptide as a neoself-antigen. Here, we describe a method for using such a system to establish a flow cytometric profile of phenotype markers expressed by developing and mature Treg cells in the thymus. Our approach is to compare antigen-specific thymocytes developing in the presence or absence of Treg cell-selecting ligands to identify phenotypic changes that characterize thymocytes undergoing selection into the Treg cell lineage.
authors.affiliation: The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Donald M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Simons
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Caton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens