Proteomic Profiling of Mouse Helper T Cell Differentiation

Abstract

Helper T cell differentiation is a key process in the regulation of adaptive immune responses. Here, we profile mouse Th1 and Th2 cells using high-throughput proteomics to increase our understanding of the molecular biology of Th differentiation to support the design of prophylactic and therapeutic intervention strategies for (infectious) diseases. Protein profiling of Th1/Th2 differentiated cells resulted in the quantification of almost 6000 proteins of which 41 were differentially expressed at FDR < 0.1, and 19 at the FDR < 0.05 level, respectively. Differential protein expression analysis identifies a number of the expected canonical Th differentiation markers, and gene set analysis using the REACTOME database and a hypergeometric test (FDR < 0.05) confirms that helper T cell pathways are the top sets that are differentially expressed. Additionally, by network analysis we are able to associate many differentially expressed proteins to the Th1 and Th2 pathways. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.