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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Mouse Naïve CD4+ T Cell Isolation and In vitro Differentiation into T Cell Subsets
Published on: April 16, 2015
Probabilistic regulation in TH2 cells accounts for monoallelic expression of IL-4 and IL-13
Liying Guo1, Jane Hu-Li, William E Paul
1Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. lguo@niaid.nih.gov
Abstract:
Il4 and Il13, closely linked genes, are expressed monoallelically in TH2 cells. Four different approaches (RNA FISH, cultures from Il13T-Il4/Il13-G4 mice, cultures from heterozygous Il13-Il4 double knockout mice, and a highly selected set of BABL/c*CAST/Ei clones displaying strong Il4 allelic bias) were utilized to study monoallelic expression of Il4 and coexpression of Il4 and Il13 on the same chromosome. There was a random probability for expression of one or two Il4 and one or two Il13 alleles; coexpression of cis and trans Il4 and Il13 alleles was equally probable. Histone H3 acetylation of CNS1, located in the Il13-Il4 intergenic region, was permissive for expression of IL-4 and IL-13 but did not determine the degree of their expression. Thus, monoallelism at the Il4 locus is a complex process; expression is linked to opening CNS1 but probability of expression is controlled at other sites. Based on these probabilities, individual cells randomly express Il4 and Il13 alleles.
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