CD48-dependent protective autophagy in conventional human T cells promotes restimulation-induced cell death resistance

Transcriptome profiling and functional analyses on expanding Tcons revealed that FOXP3 enhances expression of the SLAM family receptor CD48, which in turn sustains basal autophagy and suppresses pro-apoptotic p53 signaling. Our findings suggest that FOXP3 governs a distinct transcriptional program in early-stage effector Tcons that maintains RICD resistance via CD48-dependent protective autophagy and p53 suppression. Purified human CD4 T cells were electroporated with siRNAs against CD48 or negative-control medum GC duplex siRNA and differential gene expression analysis was performed using mRNA sequencing.