Transcriptional profiles of Th cells induced to polarize to Th1 or Th2 direction in the presence or absence of TGFbeta

Th1 and Th2 cells arise from a common precursor cell in response to triggering through the TCR and cytokine receptors for IL-12 or IL-4. This leads to activation of complex signaling pathways, which are not known in detail. Disturbances in the balance between type 1 and type 2 responses can lead to certain immune-mediated diseases. Thus, it is important to understand how Th1 and Th2 cells are generated. To clarify the mechanisms as to how IL-12 and IL-4 induce Th1 and Th2 differentiation and how TGF-beta can inhibit this process, we have used oligonucleotide arrays to examine the early polarization of Th1 and Th2 cells in the presence and absence of TGF-beta after 0, 2, 6 and 48 hours of polarization. Keywords: time course, differentiation This study includes altoghether 34 samples. Six different types of treatments (Thp, Th0, Th1, Th2, Th1+TGFbeta, Th2+TGFbeta) were studied at 4 time points (0, 2, 6 and 48h). There are two biological replicates, for both time series, consisting of pooled samples derived from different individuals. The early time points (0, 2 and 6h) and late time point (0 and 48h) were done in separate experiments (cell from different individuals), because of the limited number of the cells obtained from each the cord blood.