Project description:Medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) play a critical role in central immune tolerance by mediating negative selection of autoreactive T cells through the collective expression of the peripheral self-antigen compartment, including tissue-specific antigens (TSAs). Recent work has shown that gene expression patterns within the mTEC compartment are remarkably heterogenous and include multiple differentiated cell states. To further define mTEC development and medullary epithelial lineage relationships, we combined lineage tracing and recovery from transient in vivo mTEC ablation with single cell RNA-sequencing in Mus musculus. The combination of bioinformatic and experimental approaches revealed a non-stem transit-amplifying population of cycling mTECs that preceded Aire expression. Based on our findings, we propose a branching model of mTEC development wherein a heterogeneous pool of transit-amplifying cells gives rise to Aire- and Ccl21a-expressing mTEC subsets. We further use experimental techniques to show that within the Aire-expressing developmental branch, TSA expression peaked as Aire expression decreased, implying Aire expression must be established before TSA expression can occur. Collectively, these data provide a higher order roadmap of mTEC development and demonstrate the power of combinatorial approaches leveraging both in vivo models and high-dimensional datasets.
Project description:Thymic central tolerance is essential to preventing autoimmunity. In medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs), the Autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene plays an essential role in this process by driving the expression of a diverse set of tissue-specific antigens (TSAs), which are presented and help tolerize self-reactive thymocytes. Interestingly, Aire has a highly tissue-restricted pattern of expression, with only mTECs and peripheral extrathymic Aire-expressing cells (eTACs) known to express detectable levels in adults. Despite this high level of tissue specificity, the cis-regulatory elements that control Aire expression have remained obscure. We used sequence conservation analysis and ChIP-seq against the enhancer-associated histone mark H3K27ac to identify a candidate Aire cis-regulatory element. There is enrichment of H3K27ac near this element, ACNS1, in mTECs and the element also has characteristics of being NF-κB-responsive. Finally, we find that this element is essential for Aire expression in vivo and necessary to prevent spontaneous autoimmunity, reflecting the importance of this regulatory DNA element in promoting immune tolerance. Two experimental groups (GFP neg mTECs and GFP pos mTECs), each with three samples, and one control sample (D10 Th2 cells).
Project description:To gain insights into the difference in transcriptional programs regulated by Fezf2, Aire and Chd4, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of mTECs from Fezf2-deficient, Aire-deficient and Chd4-deficient mice.
Project description:Medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) contribute to self-tolerance through the ectopic expression of peripheral tissue antigens (PTAs) in the thymus. PTA expression in mTECs is largely dependent on the autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene. Here we used a Mus musculus mTEC cell line (3.10 mTEC line, which constitutively express Aire in culture) to knockdown Aire gene by means of siRNA transfection. Aire knockdown was confirmed by means of qRT-PCR and RNA-FISH (for Aire mRNA levels), immunofluorescence and western blot (for AIRE protein levels).The Agilent oligo microarrays were used to determine the large scale transcriptional expression profiles of control or Aire-knockdown 3.10 mTECs.
