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Bcl6 and Maf Cooperate To Instruct Human Follicular Helper CD4 T Cell Differentiation
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Bcl6 and Maf Cooperate To Instruct Human Follicular Helper CD4 T Cell Differentiation

Mark A. Kroenke, Danelle Eto, Michela Locci, Michael Cho, Terence Davidson, Elias K. Haddad and Shane Crotty
The Journal of immunology (1950), v 188(8), pp 3734-3744
15 Apr 2012
PMID: 22427637
url
https://www.jimmunol.org/content/jimmunol/188/8/3734.full.pdfView
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open
url
https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.1103246View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Immunology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology
Follicular helper CD4 T (Tfh) cells provide B cells with signals that are important for the generation of high-affinity Abs and immunological memory and, therefore, are critical for the protective immunity elicited by most human vaccines. Transcriptional regulators of human Tfh cell differentiation are poorly understood. In this article, we demonstrate that Bcl6 controls specific gene modules for human Tfh cell differentiation. The introduction of Bcl6 expression in primary human CD4 T cells resulted in the regulation of a core set of migration genes that enable trafficking to germinal centers: CXCR4, CXCR5, CCR7, and EBI2. Bcl6 expression also induced a module of protein expression critical for T-B interactions, including SAP, CD40L, PD-1, ICOS, and CXCL13. This constitutes direct evidence for Bcl6 control of most of these functions and includes three genes known to be loci of severe human genetic immunodeficiencies (CD40L, SH2D1A, and ICOS). Introduction of Bcl6 did not alter the expression of IL-21 or IL-4, the primary cytokines of human Tfh cells. We show in this article that introduction of Maf (c-Maf) does induce the capacity to express IL-21. Surprisingly, Maf also induced CXCR5 expression. Coexpression of Bcl6 and Maf revealed that Bcl6 and Maf cooperate in the induction of CXCR4, PD-1, and ICOS. Altogether, these findings reveal that Bcl6 and Maf collaborate to orchestrate a suite of genes that define core characteristics of human Tfh cell biology. The Journal of Immunology, 2012, 188: 3734-3744.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Immunology
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