Overexpression of RhoH Permits to Bypass the Pre-TCR Checkpoint

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

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Cycle Checkpoints / genetics
  • Cell Differentiation / genetics*
  • Cell Differentiation / immunology
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Genes, T-Cell Receptor*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Inbred ICR
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / metabolism
  • T-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • T-Lymphocytes / physiology*
  • Thymus Gland / cytology
  • Thymus Gland / metabolism
  • Transcription Factors / genetics*
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism
  • Up-Regulation / genetics
  • rho GTP-Binding Proteins / genetics*
  • rho GTP-Binding Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta
  • RhoH protein, mouse
  • Transcription Factors
  • rho GTP-Binding Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grant for National Center for Global Health and Medicine (25-103) to HS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.