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Characterization of MT-2 cells as a human regulatory T cell-like cell line

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 12, pages 780–782 (2015)Cite this article

The paucity of naturally occurring CD4+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) and difficulties in the identification and isolation of such cells are major obstacles in the study of human Tregs. The availability of human Treg-like cell lines is likely to facilitate a better understanding of the molecular basis of Treg function and aid the discovery of pharmacological reagents to regulate Treg activity in a disease state. In this study, we examined the Treg phenotype and the immune suppressive effect of a human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infected cell line, MT-2. The results clearly demonstrated that the MT-2 cell line has the phenotypic and functional characteristics of human Tregs and is a useful tool in the study of human Tregs.

The MT-2 cell line was derived from normal human cord leukocytes of a healthy donor by co-cultivation with leukemic cells from an adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) patient.1 It has been shown that MT-2 cells express FoxP3, and when mixed at a ratio of 1∶2 (suppressors/responders), MT-2 cells inhibited the proliferative response of purified human peripheral blood (PB) CD4+CD25− cells stimulated with dendritic cells and anti-CD3 Ab.2 However, the Treg phenotypic markers and relative suppressive activity of MT-2 cells on both proliferation and cytokine production of cocultured responder cells need to be further evaluated.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Drs Christine Lai, Kathryn S Jones, O M Zack Howard, Francis W Ruscetti and Ji Ming Wang for their help in this study.

The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organization imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

This Research was supported (in part) by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research and (in part) by the University of Macau (SRG2014-00024-ICMS-QRCM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation, Cancer Inflammation Program, Center for Cancer Research, NCI, Frederick, MD, USA

    Ryoko Hamano, Xueqiang Wu, Joost J Oppenheim & Xin Chen

  2. Division of Rheumatology, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

    Ryoko Hamano

  3. State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China

    Yitao Wang & Xin Chen

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  1. Ryoko Hamano
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  5. Xin Chen
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Correspondence to Xin Chen.

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Supplementary information accompanies the paper on Cellular & Molecular Immunology’s website. (http://www.nature.com/cmi).

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Hamano, R., Wu, X., Wang, Y. et al. Characterization of MT-2 cells as a human regulatory T cell-like cell line. Cell Mol Immunol 12, 780–782 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2014.123

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