Figure 3. In vitro polarized T_H2 CD4⁺ T cells are more efficient at performing trogocytosis than T_H1 and non-polarized cells.

Non-polarized and in vitro polarized T_H1 and T_H2 T cell blasts were used in standard in vitro trogocytosis assay and expression of IL-4, GATA-3, IFNγ and T-bet in recovered T cells was assessed via flow cytometry. (A & B) 2D plots showing fluorescence intensity of (A) IL-4 vs. GATA-3, and (B) IFNγ vs. T-bet in polarized T_H2 (grey) and T_H1 (black), and non-polarized cells, 1 hour post recovery. Numbers in corners represent frequencies of cells in respective quadrants. (C & D) Histogram overlays showing the frequency of trogocytosed (C) MHCII I-E^k and (D) biotinylated APC membrane by polarized T_H1 (grey line) T_H2 (thick black line), and non-polarized cells (thin black line), with unstimulated controls in shaded grey for comparison. (E) Mean frequency of trog⁺ cells from non-polarized (left), T_H1 (middle), and T_H2 (right) CD4⁺ cells 1 hour post-recovery. Error bars represent ±SEM from three independent experiments, * = p≤ 0.05, *** = p≤ 0.001, and **** = p≤ 0.0001. All data shown is representative of three independent experiments.