Hedgehog signaling in T cell differentiation. Mus musculus

Despite Hedgehog’s influence on T-cell activation and proliferation, the transcriptional targets of Gli2 in lymphocytes are not known. We therefore examined the Hedgehog-dependent transcriptional response of resting and early-stage activated T-cells in order to define their transcriptional response to Hedgehog pathway activation. We have established transgenic models where transcription of target genes by Gli2 is either constitutively activated or repressed in cells of the T-lineage. Gli2 has an N-terminal repressor domain and a C-terminal activator domain. Lck-Gli2ΔN2 (Gli2A) mice carry a transgene encoding a truncated form of Gli2 that acts as a permanent transcriptional activator of Hh target genes. Conversely, Lck-Gli2ΔC2 (Gli2R) mice express a repressor of Gli2-dependent transcription, which by binding to Gli binding sites inhibits physiological Hh-dependent transcription, and hence Hh signal transduction, in the cell. These transgenes are driven by the Lck promoter and are only expressed in T-lineage cells Overall design: Purified fresh, resting CD4 cells (unstimulated) and from CD4 cells stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 for 6h (stimulated) were analysed in order to obtain transcriptional profiles before and during the early stages of T-cell activation.