Microarray analysis to identify novel genes regulated by Cholera toxin in bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs). Mus musculus

The mechanisms by which dendritic cells (DCs) induce differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells along the Th2 lineage is not well understood given that DCs themselves do not produce IL-4. In the present study, we undertook a microarray approach to identify genes involved in the induction of Th2 differentiation by DCs treated with a Th2-skewing adjuvant cholera toxin (CT). In the microarray analysis, murine bone marrow derived immature DCs were treated with CT. Of particular interest was tthe significant upregulation of the expression of c-kit. The upregulation of c-kit on DCs is critical for the induction of a Th2 response. Keywords: cholera toxin, bone marrow derived dendritic cells, gene expression array-based (RNA / spotted DNA/cDNA) Overall design: Murine bone marrow cells were cultured in the presence of GM-CSF (10 ng/ml) for 6 days . On day 6 the cells were harvested and purified using magnetically labeled anti mouse CD11c+ beads . The DCs were stimulated with CT (1 ug/ml) for 24 hours and the RNA was isolated.