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. 2015 Jun 26;10(6):e0131047.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131047. eCollection 2015.

Overexpression of RhoH Permits to Bypass the Pre-TCR Checkpoint

Norimasa Tamehiro  1 , Hiroyo Oda  1 , Mutsunori Shirai  2 , Harumi Suzuki  1
Affiliations

Overexpression of RhoH Permits to Bypass the Pre-TCR Checkpoint

Norimasa Tamehiro et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

RhoH, an atypical small Rho-family GTPase, critically regulates thymocyte differentiation through the coordinated interaction with Lck and Zap70. Therefore, RhoH deficiency causes defective T cell development, leading to a paucity of mature T cells. Since there has been no gain-of-function study on RhoH before, we decided to take a transgenic approach to assess how the overexpression of RhoH affects the development of T cells. Although RhoH transgenic (RhoHtg) mice expressed three times more RhoH protein than wild-type mice, β-selection, positive, and negative selection in the thymus from RhoHtg mice were unaltered. However, transgenic introduction of RhoH into Rag2 deficient mice resulted in the generation of CD4+ CD8+ (DP) thymocytes, indicating that overexpression of RhoH could bypass β-selection without TCRβ gene rearrangement. This was confirmed by the in vitro development of DP cells from Rag2-/-RhoHtg DN3 cells on TSt-4/Dll-1 stroma in an Lck dependent manner. Collectively, our results indicate that an excess amount of RhoH is able to initiate pre-TCR signaling in the absence of pre-TCR complexes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The transgenically expressed HA-tagged RhoH is capable of compensating T cell development in RhoH-/- mice.
(A) Analysis of RhoH protein expression by western blot in RhoH-/-, RhoH-/-RhoHTg, and RhoH+/+ thymocytes. (B, C) Analysis of RhoH-/-, RhoH-/-RhoHTg, and RhoH+/+ thymocytes by flow cytometry. Two parameter plots show CD4 versus CD8 surface staining of thymocytes (upper), and CD25 versus CD44 surface staining on CD4-CD8- (DN) cells (lower). Numbers indicate percentage of cells in the selected area. Bar graphs represent average cell number and frequency of indicated thymocyte subsets calculated from six mice per group. (D) Single parameter histogram plots show CD2 and CD5 staining in DP thymocytes gated on CD4+CD8+ cells (n = 6). Data are shown as mean +SD of more than four mice representative of independent experiments. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001
Fig 2
Fig 2. Analysis of T cell development in RhoH overexpressing mice.
Analysis by flow cytometry of thymocytes and splenocytes from RhoH+/+RhoHTg (red) and RhoH+/+ (blue) mice. Representative two parameter plots show CD4 versus CD8 staining on thymocytes (A, n = 8) and splenocytes (E, n = 13). (B) Representative single-parameter histogram plots show intracellular staining of Phospho-src (pY416) gated on CD4-CD8-CD44-CD25+ (DN3) cells (n = 5). Representative single-parameter histogram plots show cell surface staining of CD2 and CD5 antigens on DP cells from RhoH+/+RhoHTg and RhoH+/+ mice in either MHC+/+ (C, n = 6) or MHC-/- (D, n = 5) background. Solid line and dashed line represent RhoH+/+ and RhoH+/+RhoHTg, respectively. (F, G) Flow cytometric analysis of CD44 versus CD62L expression profile on splenic CD4+ T (F) or CD8+ T (G) cells gated on TCRβ+ T cells (n = 10). Data are shown as mean +SD and samples were from more than four independent experiments. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, ****P<0.0001.
Fig 3
Fig 3. RhoH transgene expression enables transition from DN to DP stages in Rag2-/- mice.
FACS analysis of thymocyte differentiation in Rag2-/- (A) or MHC-/- (B) background. Representative two parameter plots show CD4 versus CD8 staining on thymocytes and CD25 versus CD44 staining on DN cells. Bar graphs represent average cell number and frequency of indicated thymocyte subsets calculated from five mice per group. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Lck activation is required for RhoH transgene-induced DPs generation without TCRβ-gene rearrangement.
(A) FACS analysis of the in vitro differentiation of thymocytes to the DP stage. DN3 cells from Rag2-/-, Rag2-/-RhoHtg, and Rag2+/+ C57B6 mice were differentiated for 14 days with the stromal cell line TSt-4/Dll-1 in the presence of IL-7. Representative two parameter plots show CD4 versus CD8 staining on cultured thymocytes at the indicated days. Results shown are from one out of three independent experiments. (B) DN3 cells were cultured with vehicle alone or a pharmacological inhibitor of Lck at the indicated concentration. Bar graphs represent the percentages of DP thymocytes compared with the vehicle control group. Data are representative of more than three independent experiments. ***P<0.001.
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