Activated, but not resting human Th2 cells, in contrast to Th1 and T regulatory cells, produce soluble ST2 and express low levels of ST2L at the cell surface
✍ Scribed by Sandrine Lécart; Nathalie Lecointe; Arun Subramaniam; Sefik Alkan; Donghui Ni; Rong Chen; Vera Boulay; Jérôme Pène; Kenji Kuroiwa; Shin-ichi Tominaga; Hans Yssel
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2002
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 337 KB
- Volume
- 32
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0014-2980
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✦ Synopsis
The T1/ST2 gene encodes, as a result of differential splicing, a cell surface protein (transmembrane form of T1/ST2, ST2L) and a soluble, secreted, protein (ST2). Here, we show that transcripts for both ST2L and ST2 are present in activated human Th2 clones, but not in Th1 and T regulatory clones. This activation-dependent expression of ST2L/ST2 transcripts was also found in short-term in vitro differentiated, activated CD4(+) Th2 cells. No expression of ST2L or ST2 mRNA was detected in any of the resting T cell subsets. Low cell surface expression of ST2L was detected on activated Th2 clones, and on freshly isolated non-IFN-gamma-producing CD4(+) peripheral blood T cells, activated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 mAb. Finally, ST2 could be detected in the culture supernatants of activated, but not resting, Th2 clones. Taken together, these results show that the T1/ST2 gene products are inducible proteins and that human Th2 cells, in addition to expressing ST2L at their cell surface, secrete ST2 following activation.