RNA-seq of Tumor-associated Endothelial Cells from Different Immunodeficient Backgrounds

To investigate the impact of CD4+ T cells on tumor vasculature, we performed transcriptome profiling on tumor-associated endothelial cells in mice with or without functional CD4 T cells. In addition to examining four pathways that affect vessel maturation (VEGFA, ANGPT1/ANGPT2, TGFbR, and sphingolipid metabolism), we ran Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and found a down-regulation of cellular adhesion and extracellular matrix assembly-related pathways in the CD4 T cell deficient group. This suggests that CD4+ T cells play an important role in promoting tumor vessel integrity and normalization. Transcriptome profiling of E0771 murine tumor-associated endothelial cells isolated from CD4+ T cell competent (CD8KO, Tie2Cre, WT) or deficient mouse strains (CD4KO, Tie2Cre;H2Ab flox and TCRKO) .