Transcriptional profilling of In vitro-primed C.rodentium-specific WT or Caspase-1 deficient Th cells

Introduction: We reported that caspase-1 is highly expressed in in vitro-primed C.rodentium-specific Th cells. Caspase-1 deficient (Casp1d10) naïve T cells differentiate into pathogen-specific Th17 cells at an suboptimal level and fail to protect against C.rodentium infection. To gain insight into the regulatory pathways exerted by caspase-1 in Th cells, we performed RNA-seq on in vitro-primed WT and Casp1d10 Th cells. Method: We stimulated WT C57/BL6J splenic CD11c+ DCs with 10ug/ml C.rodentium lysate for 5 hours. Then DCs are washed and co-cultured in 1:5 ratio with naïve WT C57/BL6J or Casp1d10 CD4 T cells for 10 days. CFSE-CD90+ (pathogen-specific Th cells) were FACS-sorted and subjected to mRNA-seq analysis. Conclusion: We found that WT Cr-specific Th cells have higher expression of Th17 genes, including Il17a,f,Il22 and Rorc. Casp1Δ10 Cr-specific Th cells exhibited higher expression of iNOS genes and exogenous lipid metabolism genes such as Cd36, suggesting a distinct cellular metabolism potentially regulated by Caspase-1. mRNA profiles of WT and Casp1d10 Cr-specific Th cells.