Numerous studies point to a role for the immune system in various animal models of hypertension. However, there is little known about the immune system of Bph/2 mice, a spontaneously hypertensive mouse model. To address this, the purpose of the current study was a comprehensive comparison of the cytokine response of activated T cells from Bph/2 mice and Bpn/3 normotensive controls. To implement this, we quantified cytokine secretion from cell supernatants from anti-CD3/anti-CD28-activated splenocytes derived from either Bph/2 mice or the normotensive Bpn/3 control mice. In comparison to Bph/2 mice, activated T cells from Bpn/3 mice secreted greater levels of cytokines including, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IFNγ, GM-CSF, TNFβ and TNFα. We noticed a particularly marked discrepancy in Th17 cytokines where T cells from Bph/2 mice had little to no induction of IL-17F (0 ± 0 pg/ml), IL-21 (1.388 ± 1.388 pg/ml) and IL-22 (1.922 ± 0.633 pg/ml ) in comparison to T cells from Bpn/3 mice (IL-17F: 2.972 ± 1.525 pg/ml; IL-21: 16.48 ± 8.368 pg/ml; IL-22: 62.84 ± 15.94 pg/ml) which showed a measurable induction of these cytokines. Likewise, the IL-17A response was lower in T cells from Bph/2 mice (19.23 ± 5.576 pg/ml) compared to those from Bpn/3 mice (55.79 ± 11.32 pg/ml). There was also a notable disparity in the secretion of TNFβ where T cells from Bpn/3 mice (543.6 ± 175.8 pg/ml) showed a robust response versus the response of T cells from Bph/2 mice (20.64 ± 16.43 pg/ml), which was less than 10% than that of T cells from Bpn/3 mice. Interestingly, while T cells from Bph/2 mice had much lower induction of the signature Th2 cytokine, IL-4 (Bpn/3: 326.2 ± 59.18 pg/ml vs. Bph/2: 130.3 ± 21.58 pg/ml), there was little difference in IL-9 (Bpn/3: 12.9 ± 1.689 pg/ml vs. Bph/2: 19.06 ± 2.903 pg/ml), which is also associated with a Th2 response. We also found that Bph/2 mice had a diminished chemokine response as compared to T cells from Bpn/3 mice. Overall, the data suggest that polyclonally activated T cells from Bph/2 mice have a weaker cytokine/chemokine response as compared to T cells from Bpn/3 mice which may be due to an overall attenuated activation of T cells from Bph/2 mice.
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