Abstracts (complete list) - Wissenschaft Online

Ria Baumgrass, Vladimir Pavlovic, Britta Lamottke, Maria Lexberg, Joachim Grün, Uwe
Niesner, Andreas Radbruch
Induction of Treg cells by manipulation of TCR signalling
The molecular mechanisms regulating induction of Treg cells are unknown. Recent data
show that peripheral Treg cells can be induced by concomitant stimulation of
transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) and T cell receptors (TcR). We found the
TGF-beta interacting factor (TGIF) to be a candidate modulator of this process. TGIF is
expressed by TcR stimulation and acts as a transcriptional repressor of TGF-beta
signalling. Impaired TcR signalling by low-dosed CsA leads to a low expression of TGIF
and therefore to Treg cell induction even at very low concentrations of TGF-beta. The
induced Treg cells are immunosuppressive both, in vitro and in vivo. TGIF knock-down
by TGIF-siRNA induced Treg cells from naïve Th cells. Altogether our data provide
evidence that TGIF acts as a regulator of TGF-beta dependent Treg cell induction.
Therefore it is a potential novel target molecule for therapeutic manipulation toward
Treg cell induction in autoimmune diseases.