TY  - JOUR
A1  - Barahona de Brito, Carlotta
A1  - Patra, Amiya Kumar
T1  - NFAT factors are dispensable for the development but are critical for the maintenance of Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T cells
JF  - Cells
N2  - The transcription factors of the nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFAT) family play a crucial role in multiple aspects of T cell function. It has recently been reported that NFATs play an important role in the suppressive function of CD4\(^+\)CD25\(^+\)Foxp3\(^+\) regulatory T (T\(_{reg}\)) cells. In this study, we have investigated the role of NFATs in the thymic development of T\(_{reg}\) cells in mice. We show that NFAT factors are dispensable for the development of Foxp3\(^+\) T\(_{reg}\) cells in the thymus but are critical for the maintenance of both the phenotype and survival of T\(_{reg}\) cells in the thymus as well as in peripheral lymphoid organs. Specifically, the homeostasis of CD4\(^+\)CD25\(^+\)Foxp3\(^+\) but not the CD4\(^+\)CD25\(^-\)Foxp3\(^+\) fraction is severely perturbed when NFAT signaling is blocked, leading to a strongly reduced T\(_{reg}\) population. We underscored this intriguing effect of NFAT on CD4\(^+\)CD25\(^+\)Foxp3\(^+\) T\(_{reg}\) cells to the disruption of survival signals provided by interleukin 2 (IL-2). Accordingly, blocking T\(_{reg}\) cell death by abolishing the activity of pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bim, compensated for the survival defects induced due to a lack of NFAT-IL-2-IL-2R signaling. Inhibition of NFAT activity led to a strong reduction in the number of Foxp3\(^+\) T\(_{reg}\) cells; however, it did not influence the level of Foxp3 expression on an individual cell basis. In addition, we show a differential effect of IL-2 and IL-7 signaling on Foxp3\(^+\) T\(_{reg}\) versus CD4\(^+\)CD25\(^-\) T cell development, again underlining the dispensability of NFAT signaling in the development, but not in the maintenance of Foxp3\(^+\) T\(_{reg}\) cells.
KW  - thymocytes
KW  - NFAT
KW  - cyclosporine A
KW  - T\(_{reg}\) and Foxp3
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-270668
SN  - 2073-4409
VL  - 11
IS  - 9
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Majumder, Snigdha
A1  - Jugovic, Isabelle
A1  - Saul, Domenica
A1  - Bell, Luisa
A1  - Hundhausen, Nadine
A1  - Seal, Rishav
A1  - Beilhack, Andreas
A1  - Rosenwald, Andreas
A1  - Mougiakakos, Dimitrios
A1  - Berberich-Siebelt, Friederike
T1  - Rapid and Efficient Gene Editing for Direct Transplantation of Naive Murine Cas9\(^+\) T Cells
JF  - Frontiers in Immunology
N2  - Gene editing of primary T cells is a difficult task. However, it is important for research and especially for clinical T-cell transfers. CRISPR/Cas9 is the most powerful gene-editing technique. It has to be applied to cells by either retroviral transduction or electroporation of ribonucleoprotein complexes. Only the latter is possible with resting T cells. Here, we make use of Cas9 transgenic mice and demonstrate nucleofection of pre-stimulated and, importantly, of naive CD3\(^+\) T cells with guideRNA only. This proved to be rapid and efficient with no need of further selection. In the mixture of Cas9\(^+\)CD3\(^+\) T cells, CD4\(^+\) and CD8\(^+\) conventional as well as regulatory T cells were targeted concurrently. IL-7 supported survival and naivety in vitro, but T cells were also transplantable immediately after nucleofection and elicited their function like unprocessed T cells. Accordingly, metabolic reprogramming reached normal levels within days. In a major mismatch model of GvHD, not only ablation of NFATc1 and/or NFATc2, but also of the NFAT-target gene IRF4 in naïve primary murine Cas9\(^+\)CD3\(^+\) T cells by gRNA-only nucleofection ameliorated GvHD. However, pre-activated murine T cells could not achieve long-term protection from GvHD upon single NFATc1 or NFATc2 knockout. This emphasizes the necessity of gene-editing and transferring unstimulated human T cells during allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
KW  - CRISPR/Cas9
KW  - gRNA-only
KW  - GvHD
KW  - metabolism
KW  - NFAT
KW  - naive T-cell gene editing
KW  - T-cell transfer
KW  - IRF4
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242896
SN  - 1664-3224
VL  - 12
ER  -