[31] Also, the survival

of thymocytes has been suggested to be regulated by Bcl-x protein.[32] These findings imply that the survival of thymocytes may be largely regulated by Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL expression, which is promoted by Stat3 activation. To determine whether T-cell deficiency in Stat3-deleted mice was attributable to the dysregulation of thymic selection and development; we assessed expression patterns of various T-cell receptor vβ chains (see Supplementary material, Fig. S3). The T-cell receptor vβ expression pattern was generally unvarying between wild-type littermates and Tanespimycin concentration the Stat3 knockout group, which implies that Stat3 does not influence the thymic selection process. To investigate whether the T-cell deficiency in Selleckchem MS275 Stat3-knockout mice resulted from increased susceptibility to apoptosis, we performed annexin V staining and TUNEL assays. The numbers of Stat3-deficient T lymphocytes undergoing apoptosis were increased considerably compared with controls (Fig. 5a,b). Several studies performed using T-cell-specific Stat3-deficient mice have suggested that the expression of Bcl-2 family genes, including Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, was significantly attenuated in T cells upon

stimulation with IL-2 or IL-6, or in mouse models of autoimmune disease, such as mice with experimental colitis.[11, 16, 17] Our data provide striking evidence that Stat3 also regulates Bcl-2 family genes in T cells without any prominent GPX6 cytokine stimulation or induction of autoimmunity (Fig. 6). These results suggest that Stat3 plays a critical role in both maintenance of the resting naive T-cell population and T-cell clonal

expansion in response to pro-inflammatory signals through regulation of pro-survival Bcl-2 family genes. Stat3 also promotes T-cell expansion by enhancing the expression of both pro-survival and proliferative genes.[11, 17] Hence, we examined whether proliferative potential was decreased in Stat3-knockout cells. Unexpectedly, neither the proportion of cells that were proliferating (Fig. 5a) nor the expression levels of genes that promote cell division, such as cyclins D and E, was significantly decreased in T cells from Stat3-deficient mice (data not shown). Mature SP T lymphocytes are known to enter a ‘resting’ state in which they are quiescent and relatively resistant to apoptosis.[33] This suggests that most naive T cells are quiescent. Hence, their maintenance may depend largely on pro-survival signals rather than on stimuli that promote cell division. Our data suggest that Stat3 does not contribute to T-cell proliferation under resting conditions, but could provide resistance against apoptosis by up-regulating Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL gene expression in naive T lymphocytes.