Differentiation and recruitment of Th9 cells stimulated by pleural mesothelial cells in human Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
Authors: Xian-Zhi Xiong
Cong Wu
Zhi-Jian Ye
Wei-Bing Yang
Jian-Chu Zhang
Rong-Hui Du
Shou-Ming Qin
Ming-Li Yuan
Qiong Zhou
Huan-Zhong Shi
Journal: PLoS ONE (2012)
Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Keywords: Th9 cells; Tuberculosis; Immune regulation; TGF-β; IL-1β
Affiliations: Key Laboratory of Pulmonary Diseases of Health Ministry, Department of Respiratory Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Abstract:  Newly discovered IL-9-producing CD4(+) helper T cells (Th9 cells) have been reported to contribute to tissue inflammation and immune responses, however, differentiation and immune regulation of Th9 cells in tuberculosis remain unknown. In the present study, our data showed that increased Th9 cells with the phenotype of effector memory cells were found to be in tuberculous pleural effusion as compared with blood. TGF-β was essential for Th9 cell differentiation from naïve CD4(+) T cells stimulated with PMA and ionomycin in vitro for 5 h, and addition of IL-1β, IL-4 or IL-6 further augmented Th9 cell differentiation. Tuberculous pleural effusion and supernatants of cultured pleural mesothelial cells were chemotactic for Th9 cells, and this activity was partly blocked by anti-CCL20 antibody. IL-9 promoted the pleural mesothelial cell repairing and inhibited IFN-γ-induced pleural mesothelial cell apoptosis. Moreover, pleural mesothelial cells promoted Th9 cell differentiation by presenting antigen. Collectively, these data provide new information concerning Th9 cells, in particular the collaborative immune regulation between Th9 cells and pleural mesothelial cells in human M. tuberculosis infection. In particular, pleural mesothelial cells were able to function as antigen-presenting cells to stimulate Th9 cell differentiation. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Data potentially reused between two papers. Identified by another reader. https: pubpeer.com publications 0FAD9B5C68E4F51B8691533A9DA7E3 https: pubpeer.com publications A7A36EFC7C82F429B2C13B1066CF86 *** ![file] , 
 Dear Actinopolyspora Biskrensis, Thank you for your comments. Two sets of experiments for the articles u2018PLoS ONE 2012, 7, e31710u2019 and u2018Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2012u2019 were conducted during the same period. ![![](http: )](http: )![file] Here, we overlapped PLoS One Fig. 7B and AJRCCM Fig. 8B to compare IL-9 and IL-22 data. As indicated in the merged image, IL-9 data in PLoS ONE Fig. 7B were very different from IL-22 data in AJRCCM Fig. 8B. ![![](http: )](http: )![file] Each panel of either Plos One Fig. 7A or AJRCCM Fig. 8A was one representative microscopy picture of five independent experiments of pleural mesothelial cells (PMCs) seeded in 12-well plates. IFN-u03b3 was added in both experiments to serve as control, since its effect on long-term restoration of PMCs had been known. The right middle panel of AJRCCM Fig. 8A was taken from PMCs cultured for 7 days, and the right bottom panel of PLoS One Fig. 7A was taken at day 14 from the same well. One can tell that two panels are not identical, and we label some differences using three circles with different colors for examples; actually, the other substaintial differeces can be seen throughout the images. ,