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Updated: May 10, 2026

Mouse Naïve CD4+ T Cell Isolation and In vitro Differentiation into T Cell Subsets
Published on: April 16, 2015
Bach2 maintains T cells in a naive state by suppressing effector memory-related genes
Shin-ichi Tsukumo1, Midori Unno, Akihiko Muto
1Laboratory of Cell Signaling, RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0045, Japan.
Abstract:
The transcriptional repressor BTB and CNC homology 2 (Bach2) is thought to be mainly expressed in B cells with specific functions such as class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation, but its function in T cells is not known. We found equal Bach2 expression in T cells and analyzed its function using Bach2-deficient (-/-) mice. Although T-cell development was normal, numbers of peripheral naive T cells were decreased, which rapidly produced Th2 cytokines after TCR stimulation. Bach2(-/-) naive T cells highly expressed genes related to effector-memory T cells such as CCR4, ST-2 and Blimp-1. Enhanced expression of these genes induced Bach2(-/-) naive T cells to migrate toward CCR4-ligand and respond to IL33. Forced expression of Bach2 restored the expression of these genes. Using Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-seq analysis, we identified S100 calcium binding protein a, Heme oxigenase 1, and prolyl hydroxylase 3 as Bach2 direct target genes, which are highly expressed in effector-memory T cells. These findings indicate that Bach2 suppresses effector memory-related genes to maintain the naive T-cell state and regulates generation of effector-memory T cells.
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