Regulatory T cells (Tregs) require IL-2 for their development, but it was unclear how IL-2 signaling impacted mature Tregs. To determine the role of IL-2 in mature Tregs, Fan et al. used an inducible knockdown mouse model to delete CD25, the ligand binding subunit of the IL-2 receptor, after thymic development. By performing adoptive transfer of cells with a CD25 knockdown or cells that had been sorted based on levels of CD25 expression, they determined that IL-2 signaling has unique functions in mature Tregs to promote proliferation and long-term survival and regulate glycolysis. Interestingly, in the absence of IL-2, Tregs persisted for several weeks in the presence of IL-7 indicating that IL-2 was not required to maintain lineage stability.
Adoptive transfer experiments can help to define how various signaling pathways affect cell development and function in vivo. We've released a new MojoSort™ CD45.1 magnetic cell separation kit to help isolate donor and recipient cells following adoptive transfer experiments utilizing CD45.1 and CD45.2 antigens. |
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