FIGURE 4.

Identification of un‐restored genes in alloreactive Irf4^−/− CD4⁺ T cells upon checkpoint blockade. CD45.1⁺ B6 mice were adoptively transferred with CD45.2⁺ WT or Irf4^−/− TEa cells on day ‐1, and transplanted with BALB/c hearts on day 0. Recipients transferred with Irf4^−/− TEa cells were further treated with rat IgG or anti‐PD‐L1 plus anti‐CTLA‐4 mAbs (P+C group) on days 0, 3, and 5. Adoptively transferred CD45.2⁺ TEa cells were isolated from splenocytes on day 6 by flow cytometry sorting. RNA was isolated for microarray analysis. A, Schematic of the experimental design. B and C, Heat maps showing the normalized gene expression scores from indicated groups. Two RNA samples of each group were obtained from two independent experiments. Each RNA sample was isolated from pooled TEa cells from three (WT TEa group and Irf4^−/− TEa P+C group) or five (Irf4^−/− TEa IgG group) recipient mice