S1C). A large proportion of the transferred Th17 cells expressed solely IFN-γ (11.6%). Roughly 2% of cells co-expressed both IL-17A selleck and IFN-γ. In spleen and LN, most recovered cells were negative

for IL-17A but some cells expressed IFN-γ (6 and 9% of the T cells in the spleen and the LN, respectively). Since only half of the initially transferred population was IL-17A positive (Supporting Information Fig. S1A), it was possible that IL-17-negative cells may have upregulated IFN-γ expression. To clarify whether Th17 cells can change their cytokine profile during the course of EAE, we made use of our IL-17F-CreEYFP (BAC-transgenic IL-17F-Cre crossed to ROSA26-EYFP) Th17 reporter mouse line, which can also serve as a fate mapping strain 26. Since Cre-mediated excision of the loxP-flanked stop cassette of the ROSA26-EYFP reporter is irreversible, cells expressing Cre (following activity of the IL-17F promoter) are EYFP+ irrespective of their subsequent cytokine expression pattern. We crossed these mice to 2D2 transgenic mice (2D2×IL-17F-CreEYFP) and generated from the latter HIF pathway in vitro activated MOG-specific EYFP expressing Th17 cells (Fig. 1A and Supporting Information

Fig. S2). Although we found under standard Th17 differentiation conditions only 1/6 to 1/3 of the IL-17A intracellular positively stained cells to co-express the IL-17F-EYFP reporter, these cells were especially high in IL-17A expression either analyzed intracellular or by cytokine secretion assays (Supporting Information Fig. S2). We previously showed that about 95% of in vitro generated cAMP EYFP+ cells from these reporter mice express either IL-17A and/or IL-17F 26. Since the expression strength of IL-17A and IL-17F were highly correlating, EYFP+ positive cells are bona fide Th17 cells. Prior to transfer, CD4+EYFP+ cells did not express IFN-γ

(Fig. 1B). We sorted EYFP+ Th17 cells (to more than 95% purity) and transferred 2×105 of these cells to RAG1−/− mice. Since these cells were too small in number to induce passive EAE, we co-transferred 1×107 2D2 Th1-polarized cells (the phenotype of which is shown in Fig. 1C). At the peak of disease (score 4 EAE), we reanalyzed the transferred cells isolated from the CNS, spleen and LN (Fig. 1D and E). Based on expression of both CD4+ and EYFP, the transferred Th17 could readily be distinguished from the transferred Th1 cells (Fig. 1D). Indeed, EYFP-expressing Th17 cells recovered from the CNS had to a large extent lost expression of IL-17A, with a sizeable proportion (17.8%) shifting to express solely IFN-γ. A minor fraction that produced both cytokines (6.4%) was also observed in the CNS (Fig. 1E). Loss of IL-17A expression was even more obvious in the cells recovered from the spleen (Fig. 1E). Interestingly, about a quarter of the cells reharvested from the LN expressed both IL-17A and IFN-γ.