different doses of transforming growth factor-β on in vitro differentiation of human naïve cd4+ t cells to t helper 17

an appropriate differentiation of distinct human cd4+ t cell subset is critical for manipulating these cells for using in immunity related diseases. despite various attempts to clarify the role of different factors involved in th17 differentiation, many crucial contradictions yet remained to be optimized. although it has been shown that the differentiation of in-vitro th17 cells culture conditions requires the presence of il-1beta, il-23, il-2, il-21, il-6 and tgf-β, the optimum amount of tgf-β regulating in vitro human th17 cell differentiation is still unclear. in the current study, a flow cytometric assay was used to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of tgf-β and a combination of il-1beta, il-23, il-2 without using il-6 on development of interleukin (il)-17–producing t helper (th17) cells. according to our findings, 0.1 ng/ml of tgf-β significantly increases the expression of il-17 in comparison to other concentrations of this cytokine. results indicated the vital role of tgf-β cytokine in the polarization of human th17 cells in vitro.