Acute transcriptional effects of IL-6 on murine naive CD8 T cells

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine with diverse roles in homeostasis, inflammation, and cancer. To identify genes regulated by short-term IL-6 treatment, we performed RNAseq profiling of naïve murine CD8+ T cells stimulated for 4 hours with recombinant mouse IL-6 in the presence or absence of anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies. We found that IL-6 controls expression of diverse regulators of T cell differentiation and function, including repression of co-stimulatory receptors, induction of co-inhibitory receptors, and induction of transcription factors important for memory formation and T cell quiescence. Overall design: FACS-sorted naïve (CD62L+ CD44-low) CD8 T cells from female C57BL/6J mice were stimulated in vitro for 4 hours with recombinant mouse IL-6 (10 ng/ml), plate-bound anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies + IL-2, or IL-6 + plate-bound anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies + IL-2