1. Generation of Helios reporter mice and an evaluation of the suppressive capacity of Helios(+) regulatory T cells in vitro
- Author
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Tetsuya Honda, Kazunari Sugita, Yoshiki Miyachi, Gen Kondoh, Kenji Kabashima, Takashi Nomura, and Sho Hanakawa
- Subjects
Mice, 129 Strain ,medicine.medical_treatment ,T cell ,Recombinant Fusion Proteins ,Population ,Gene Expression ,chemical and pharmacologic phenomena ,Mice, Transgenic ,Dermatology ,HeliOS ,In Vitro Techniques ,Dermatitis, Contact ,Biochemistry ,T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory ,Green fluorescent protein ,Interferon-gamma ,Mice ,Bacterial Proteins ,Genes, Reporter ,Transforming Growth Factor beta ,medicine ,Immune Tolerance ,Animals ,education ,Molecular Biology ,education.field_of_study ,Chemistry ,Interleukin-17 ,FOXP3 ,hemic and immune systems ,Forkhead Transcription Factors ,Ikaros Transcription Factor ,In vitro ,Cell biology ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Luminescent Proteins ,Cytokine ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Immunology ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Helios is a member of the Ikaros transcription factor family and has been reported to be a marker of thymus-derived regulatory T cells (Treg). Helios is an intracellular protein, however, and hence cannot be used as a marker to separate living Tregs. To solve this problem, we generated Helios reporter mice in which Helios+ cells selectively express Venus, a variant of green fluorescent protein. Most of the Tregs in the thymus expressed Helios, whereas its expression was varied in peripheral lymphoid organs. The Helios+ Treg-population was superior in ability to suppress both antigen-specific and TCR-stimulated T cell responses. We also showed that Helios+ Tregs inhibited the cytokine production by T cells more efficiently than Helios- Tregs. We conclude that Helios reporter mouse strain is a useful tool to study function of Helios and that Helios+ Tregs represent the highly suppressive population.
- Published
- 2015