Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access

BATF is essential for IL-4 expression in T follicular helper cells

4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Immunology

September 28-30, 2015 Crowne Plaza Houston River Oaks, Houston, TX, USA

Nurieva Roza Insafetdinovna, Anupama Sahoo and Andrei Alekseev

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Clin Cell Immunol

Abstract :

Apart from T helper (Th)-2 cells, T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are a major class of IL-4 producing T cells, required for regulation of type 2 humoral immunity. Although the transcriptional control of IL-4 has been an area of extensive investigation, the precise regulation mechanism of IL-4 production in Tfh cells remains mainly unknown. In the current study, we found that the transcription factor BATF, a member of the AP-1/Jun family is essential for IL-4 expression in Tfh cells rather than in canonical Th2 cells. Functionally, BATF in cooperation with Interferon regulatory factor (IRF) 4 along with Stat3 and Stat6 trigger IL-4 production in Tfh cells by directly binding to and activation of the CNS2 region in the IL-4 locus. In addition, Batf-to-c-Maf signaling is an important determinant of IL-4 expression in Tfh cells. BATF deficiency impairs the generation of IL-4 producing Tfh cells that results in protection against allergic asthma. IL-4 acts as an autocrine factor in controlling BATF-mediated IL-4 expression in Tfh cells. Our results thus indicate a critical role of BATF in promoting the generation of pro-allergic IL-4 producing Tfh cells.

Biography :

Nurieva Roza Insafetdinovna has completed her PhD from Pushchino State University, Russia and Post-doctoral studies from University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Currently, she is the Assistant Professor in Immunology Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.

Email: rnurieva@mdanderson.org