Comparison of stable human Treg and Th clones by transcriptional profiling - experiment I

The aim of this work was to identify functional features that are specific of human Treg cells, through the identification of genes that are differentially expressed: 1/ in activated Treg clones versus activated Thelper clones; 2/ in Th clones activated in the presence versus the absence of TGFb; 3/ in suppressed Th clones, i.e. Th clones activated in the presence of Treg clones, versus controls. Keywords: TCR activation Two to four million cells of human T cell clones were collected at rest (time point = 0) or after activation with coated anti-CD3 and soluble anti-CD28 antibodies (time points = 6, 24 or 41hrs). RNA was extracted for hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.