News Finding: They found that adding permeable alpha-ketoglutarate to the low interleukin 2 condition induced about a third of the gene program induced by high interleukin 2 relative to low interleukin 2 in T cells, while it inhibited about 10 percent of the genes that were more highly expressed in low interleukin 2 relative to high interleukin 2 conditions.
Paper Finding: In the qRT-PCR analyses, IL-2-and aKG-sensitive genes, including Hk2, Ifng, and Hlx, were induced by 5-aza treatment to a similar extent as aKG treatment (Figure 3D ).
News Context: These different concentrations of interleukin 2 signaling drive the cells to turn on different gene programs and develop gene programs similar to those from either effector or memory T cells. They found that adding permeable alpha-ketoglutarate to the low interleukin 2 condition induced about a third of the gene program induced by high interleukin 2 relative to low interleukin 2 in T cells, while it inhibited about 10 percent of the genes that were more highly expressed in low interleukin 2 relative to high interleukin 2 conditions. Alpha-ketoglutarate thus appears to be responsible for part, but not all, of interleukin 2's impact on T cell gene programming.
Paper Context: The qRT-PCR analyses demonstrated that several IL-2-and aKG-sensitive target genes had decreased expression with Tet2 knockdown ( Figure S3E ). In the qRT-PCR analyses, IL-2-and aKG-sensitive genes, including Hk2, Ifng, and Hlx, were induced by 5-aza treatment to a similar extent as aKG treatment (Figure 3D ). The inhibition of DNA methylation diminished the expression of genes such as Klf2 and Sell (encodes CD62L) to a similar extent that aKG inhibited their expression.