Proinflammatory cytokines promote TET2-mediated DNA demethylation during CD8 T cell effector differentiation
Caitlin C. Zebley, Hossam A. Abdelsamed, Hazem E. Ghoneim, Shanta Alli, Charmaine Brown, Dalia Haydar, Mi Tian, Tarsha Harris, Maureen A. McGargill, Giedre Krenciute, Ben Youngblood
Abstract
To gain insight into the signaling determinants of effector-associated DNA methylation programming among CD8 T cells, we explore the role of interleukin (IL)-12 in the imprinting of IFNg expression during CD8 T cell priming. We observe that anti-CD3/CD28-mediated stimulation of human naive CD8 T cells is not sufficient to induce substantial demethylation of the IFNg promoter. However, anti-CD3/CD28 stimulation in the presence of the inflammatory cytokine, IL-12, results in stable demethylation of the IFNg locus that is commensurate with IFNg expression. IL-12-associated demethylation of the IFNg locus is coupled to cell division through TET2-dependent demethylation in an ex vivo human chimeric antigen receptor T cell model system and an in vivo immunologically competent murine system. Collectively, these data illustrate that IL-12 signaling promotes TET2-mediated effector DNA demethylation programming in CD8 T cells and serve as proof of concept that cytokines can guide induction of epigenetically regulated traits for T cell-based immunotherapies.