Time course expression measured by microarray of fresh CD4+ response to activation from healthy individuals

Variation in individuals' adaptive immune response is believed to influence susceptibility to complex diseases in humans. The genetic basis of such variation is poorly understood. We measured gene expression from resting and activated CD4+ T cells derived from the peripheral blood of healthy individuals. We activated the primary T cells with anti-CD3/CD28 beads alone or with IFNb or Th17 polarizing cytokines. We collected peripheral blood from each human donor. We isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells by Ficoll, and negatively selected for CD4+ T cells using RosettaSep. We then either left cells unstimulated or stimulated them with beads conjugated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 either without additional cytokines, or with IFNb, or with Th17 cocktail. Cells were harvest at up to 8 time points (0hr, 45min, 2hr, 4hr, 10hr, 24hr, 48hr and 72hr), lysed and RNA isolated to be profiled on microarray.