Differential roles of epigenetic changes and Foxp3 expression in regulatory T cell-specific transcriptional regulation.

ABSTRACT: Naturally occurring regulatory T (Treg) cells, which specifically express the transcription factor forkhead box P3 (Foxp3), are engaged in the maintenance of immunological self-tolerance and homeostasis. By transcriptional start site cluster analysis, we assessed here how genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation or Foxp3 binding sites were associated with Treg-specific gene expression. We found that Treg-specific DNA hypomethylated regions were closely associated with Treg up-regulated transcriptional start site clusters, whereas Foxp3 binding regions had no significant correlation with either up- or down-regulated clusters in nonactivated Treg cells. However, in activated Treg cells, Foxp3 binding regions showed a strong correlation with down-regulated clusters. In accordance with these fi

SUBMITTER: Morikawa H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3986152 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature