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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Sep 15.
Published in final edited form as: J Immunol. 2010 Aug 18;185(6):3190–3198. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.0903670

Figure 5. TGF-β upregulates AHR expression, potentiating activation of the DRE by kynurenine.

Figure 5

A, (left) Total RNA was extracted from naïve T cells (separated by magnetic beads), either fresh or after 20 hours or 3 days of culture, and qPCR was performed for AHR expression. Culture conditions included antibody stimulation, FICZ 200nM, kynurenine 50uM, or TGF-β 3ng/ml. A, (right) Cyp1b1 mRNA expression was also examined by qPCR at 20 hours and 3 days after the same culture conditions. The FICZ sample was not tested at 3 days (nt). B, To assess whether AHR upregulation secondary to TGF-β would potentiate binding of ligands to the AHR, Cyp1a1 and Cyp1b1 expression after kynurenine exposure in culture for 3 days with and without TGF-β. The response is strongly enhanced after TGF-β exposure, shifting the curve up significantly, implying that TGF-β does potentiate the binding of kynurenine to the AHR when this ligand is present in the culture. Post ANOVA testing comparisons are against the vehicle control; *, p < 0.05; ***, p < 0.001.