Role of Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in murine CD4 T cells

Author(s)

Carla Cristine Crude dos Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Medicina (FM/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-06-12

Examining board members

Edecio Cunha Neto; Madson Queiroz de Almeida; Joao Gustavo Pessini Amarante Mendes

• Advisor: Edecio Cunha Neto

Abstract

The Wnt/beta-catenin pathway regulates many functions in vertebrates, including T cell differentiation, as well as proliferation, morphogenesis and migration in different cell types. CD4+ T cells play is fundamental for immunological competence. Our group has observed that human CD4+ T cells present activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway after treatment with lithium salts or other pathway agonists. The activation of this pathway induced proliferation in naive and central memory CD4+ T cells. Together, these results suggest an important role for the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in the homeostasis of human CD4+ T cells. It would be very important to evaluate the role of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in T cells in the mouse model, since little is known about its effect in mice CD4+ T cell homeostasis. The activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway may be induced with Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3B (GSK3beta) inhibitors, i.e., lithium salts as mentioned above, and specific GSK3beta inhibitors (SB, CHIR) in different cell types. In this work, we evaluated the effect of GSK3beta inhibitors in the activation of the canonical Wnt/beta-catenin in splenocytes and CD4+ T cells, by conducting experiments in vivo and in vitro, evaluating the expression of its target genes HIG2, Bcl-xL, Cyclin D1 and c-myc. We verified that acute (2-12 hours after administration) or chronic (daily administration for 30 days) treatment of mice with lithium salts is not able to activate the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in splenocytes and CD4+ T cells, although we could observe activation in brain tissues (cortex and hypothalamus). Besides, no activation of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway was observed in these cell types after in vitro treatment with LiCl or the specific inhibitors of GSK3beta (CHIR99021, SB-216763), while the pathway was activated by the same treatments in HEK293 cells. Our results suggest that the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway is not inducible in murine mature CD4+ T cells with the tested agonists. This may have physiological implications, for instance on the homeostasis of CD4+ T cells, where homeostatic proliferation - influenced the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in human T cells - is less important in the maintenance of the murine peripheral T cell pool (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/18634-3 - Action of Wnt/²-catenin agonists in murine CD4+ T cells
• Grantee: Carla Cristine Crude dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master