Cutting Edge: Inhibition of Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Activity Induces the Generation and Enhanced Suppressive Function of Human IL-10+ FOXP3+–Induced Regulatory T Cells

Abstract

Abstract IL-10 is critical for Foxp3+ regulatory T cell (Tregs)–mediated immune suppression, but how to efficiently upregulate IL-10 production in Tregs remains unclear. In this article, we show that human IL-10+ FOXP3+–induced regulatory T cell (iTreg) generation can be dramatically promoted by inhibiting GSK3 activity. IL-10+ FOXP3+ iTregs induced by GSK3 inhibition exhibit classical features of immune-suppressive T cells. We further demonstrate that IL-10+ iTregs exhibit enhanced suppressive function in both IL-10–dependent and –independent manners. The enhanced suppressive function of IL-10+ Tregs is not due to a single factor such as IL-10, although IL-10 may mediate this enhanced suppressive function to some extent. Mechanistically, the increased transcriptional activity of IL-10 promoter and the enhanced expression of C-Maf and BLIMP1 coordinately facilitate IL-10 expression in human iTregs under GSK3 inhibition. Our study provides a new strategy to generate human immune-suppressive IL-10+ FOXP3+ Tregs for immunotherapies.