Gene expression profiles of human Treg and Tconv cells induced by signals of pseudostarvation

We have employed whole genome microarray expression profiling of human Treg and Tconv cells as a discovery platform to identify genes differentially expressed upon signal of pseudostarvation (either mTOR inhibition or leptin neutralizaion) responsible for proliferation of Treg cell on one side and inhibition of Tconv cells on the other. Human Treg and Tconv cells isolated from healthy donors were pretreated or not with rapamycin or leptin mAb and stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 beads for 12h. Gene expression was evaluated in human freshly isolated Treg and Tconv cells, and in the same cells after 1 hour rapamycin pretreatment or leptin mAb-treatment and compared to vehicle-pretreated cells, upon 12 hours stimulation with anti-CD3/CD28 beads, in order to define the effect of signals of pseudo-starvation on human Treg/Tconv cells. Three independent experiments were performed for each of the different experimental conditions using different donors for each experiment. Three channel array hybridization. Analyzed as single-channel.