title: Interleukin-2 drives immature double negative thymocytes into γδ T cells expressing Foxp3 on a stromal cell line in vitro.
abstract: γδ T cells are exported from the thymus as innate-like lymphocytes that can immediately respond to antigens. In the thymus, γδ T cells diverge into functionally distinct lineages. It is not known whether γδ T cells differentiate into regulatory cells that express Foxp3, which is an essential transcription factor for CD4(+) regulatory T cells. In this study, we analyzed CD25(+) immature thymocytes that give rise to both αβ and γδ thymocytes. These precursor cells have the potential to differentiate into Foxp3(+) γδ T cells on a stromal cell line, TSt4-Dll1. Development of Foxp3(+) γδ thymocytes in this culture was dependent on IL-2. IL-2 stimulation induced Id3, Egr1, and Egr3 expression in CD25(+) immature thymocytes, suggesting that it could activate signaling molecules that are downstream of TCR signaling. The induction of Foxp3 in precursor γδ T cells suggested that IL-2 could activate the Foxp3 gene early in thymocyte development.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, 2669 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-0022, Japan.
authors.forename: Keita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibuya
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, 2669 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-0022, Japan. Electronic address: naoko@rs.noda.tus.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002460:Cell Line; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000276:immunology*; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000276:immunology; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D060168:Thymocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; C498833:Foxp3 protein, mouse; D007376:Interleukin-2
keywords: Double negative thymocyte; Foxp3; IL-2; γδ T cell