Expression data from MSC2 cells treated with IL4

The immortalized myeloid-derived suppressor cells MSC2 (Apolloni et al. JI 2000) are a useful tool to explore the mechanisms by which MDSCs suppress tumor immunity. This immortalized MDSC cell line acquired the capacity to suppress T cell proliferation and CTL activity only after incubation with Interleukin 4. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression that differentiate the non-suppressive untreated MSC-2 from the suppressive IL-4 treated MSC2. CD11b+Gr1+ cells isolated from the spleens of immunosuppressed mice were immortalized using a retrovirus encoding for v-myc and v-raf. The MSC2 cell line was selected from the empirical screening of immortalized clones because of its characteristic of becoming immune suppressive only after treatment with IL-4.