Identification of Novel Human and Mouse Regulatory T cell Surface Markers via Flow Cytometry Screening

ABSTRACT

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are crucial components of the immune response. These cells mediate self-tolerance, suppress auto-immunity, and therefore, play a central role in the maintenance of immune homeostasis. There has been an increased interest in identifying Treg cell surface markers that would be useful not only for facilitating the identification of these cells in a variety of samples but also for developing new tools to characterize Treg subpopulations, improve Treg enrichment protocols (used in Treg-based transplantation immunotherapy), and activate or neutralize Tregs. The identification of blocking antibodies for Tregs is of special interest, given the potential for the development of drugs that can improve anti-tumor immune responses. We have screened approximately 1800 antibodies, via flow cytometry using human PBMCs and mouse splenocytes (cultured with anti-CD3/anti-CD28/TGF-beta and IL-2), to identify surface markers in CD4⁺/CD25⁺ and FoxP3⁺ populations. About 170 antibodies were positively identified, of which approximately 100 recognize proteins that have already been reported in the literature to be expressed by Tregs. Approximately 30 antibodies constitute a group of potentially new Treg markers, which will be further tested for their significance.

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Regulatory T Cells Brochure 

Regulatory T cells