, Viropharma and Cubist. “
“Extrathymically induced Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells contribute to the pool of Treg cells and are implicated in the maintenance of immune tolerance at selleck chemicals environmental interfaces. The impact of T-cell senescence on their generation and function is, however, poorly characterized. We report here that

steady-state induction of Foxp3 is impaired in aged T cells in vivo. In vitro assays further revealed that this defective generation of Treg cells was independent from the strength of TCR stimulation and arose before T-cell proliferation. Importantly, they also revealed that this impairment of Foxp3 induction is unrelated to known age-related T-cell defects, such as IL-2 secretion impairment, accumulation of activated T-cell populations, or narrowing of the T-cell repertoire. Finally, a loss of extrathymic induction of Foxp3 www.selleckchem.com/products/poziotinib-hm781-36b.html and tolerance

to minor-mismatched skin graft were observed in aged mice treated by nondepleting anti-CD4 antibody. The T-cell intrinsic impairment of Treg-cell generation revealed here highlights age as a key factor to be considered in immune tolerance induction. Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are required for the control of autoimmune responses and maintenance of immune homeostasis [1, 2]. Depending on their site of generation, two populations have been distinguished: tTreg cells generated in the thymus and pTreg induced in the periphery from mature conventional T (Tconv) cells. A key role of pTreg cells has been established in models of oral tolerance [3], colitis [4], transplantation

[5, 6], and in pregnancy [7, 8] in which pTreg cells allow the development of a suppressive T-cell repertoire adapted to evolving antigens encountered in the periphery. Aging is associated with altered immune responses to vaccination, infection, cancer, and dysregulation of inflammatory responses [9, 10]. In addition to a decrease in naïve T-cell numbers due to thymus involution [11, 12], functional impairment of T cells is a major component of the defective immune response in the elderly [13]. In particular, an early and transient IL-2 secretion defect in aged T cells leads to impaired proliferation and differentiation in fully functional Th1 and Th2 cells [14, 15]. We characteri-zed here the effect of T-cell senescence on pTreg-cell generation and report that T-cell intrinsic defects oppose the induction of Foxp3 in aged Tconv not cells both at the steady state and during induction of transplantation tolerance. To explore whether T-cell senescence affects pTreg production, we first compared in vivo Foxp3 induction at the steady state in Tconv populations isolated from either young (5–20 weeks) or old (60–65 weeks) Foxp3-eGFP mice. Highly purified CD4+eGFP− T cells (>99.99%) from young Foxp3-eGFP mice (Fig. 1A) were transferred into C57Bl/6 CD45.1+ congenic hosts, and 4 weeks after transfer, 0.4% of eGFP+ cells was detected in the donor T-cell population (Fig. 1B). In contrast, a 1.