Materials and Reagents

48-well cell culture plates (ASi Alkali Scientific Inc., catalog number: TP9048)
CellPro^TM 70 μm cell strainers (ASi, Falcon^®, catalog number: MT4070)
1 ml syringe (BD Tuberculin Slip Tip, catalog number: 9189520)
50 ml centrifuge tubes (ASi, catalog number: C5602)
15 ml centrifuge tubes (ASi, catalog number: C5600)
C57BL/6J mice (The Jackson Laboratory, catalog number: 000664)
C57BL/6-IL17a^tm1Bcgen/J mice (The Jackson Laboratory, catalog number: 018472)
RBC lysis buffer 10× (Biolegend^®, catalog number: 420302)
Cell culture grade water (HyPure^TM, catalog number: SH30529.02)
MojoSort^TM Mouse CD4 Naïve T Cell Isolation Kit (Biolegend^®, catalog number: 480040)
Coating antibodies:
1. Anti-mouse CD3ϵ (clone 145-2C11, Bio X Cell, catalog number: BE0001-1)
2. Anti-mouse CD28 (clone 37.51, Bio X Cell, catalog number: BE0015-1)
Staining antibodies:
1. APC anti-mouse CD4 (clone RM4-5, Biolegend, catalog number: 100516)
2. PE/Cy7 anti-mouse IL-17A (clone TC11-18H10.1, Biolegend, catalog number: 506922)
Cell Stimulation Cocktail Plus Protein Transport Inhibitors (Invitrogen eBioscience^TM, catalog number: 00-4975-93)
FoxP3/Transcription Factor Staining Buffer Set (Fixation Diluent, Fixation Reagent, Permeabilization kit, eBioscience^TM, catalog number: 00-5523-00)
RPMI 1640 1× with L-glutamine (Corning, catalog number: 10-040-CV)
Fetal bovine serum (FBS) (ATLANTA biologicals^TM, R&D SYSTEMS, catalog number: S12450)
L-glutamine 200 mM (Corning, catalog number: 25-005-CI)
Penicillin-streptomycin solution (PS) 100× (Corning, catalog number: 30-002-CI)
Sodium pyruvate 100 mM (Corning, catalog number: 25-000-CI)
2-mercaptoethanol (ME) 1000× (Life Technologies, Gibco^®, catalog number: 21985-023)
T_H17 polarization cytokines and antibodies:
1. Recombinant Human TGF-β1 (PeproTech, catalog number: 100-21C)
2. Recombinant Murine IL-6 (PeproTech, catalog number: 216-16)
3. Anti-mouse IFN-γ (clone XMG1.2, Bio X Cell, catalog number: BE0055)
4. Anti-mouse IL-2 (clone JES6-1A12, Bio X Cell, catalog number: BE0043)
5. Anti-mouse IL-4 (clone 11B11, Bio X Cell, catalog number: BE0045)
Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) 1× (Corning, catalog number: 21-040-CV)
Bovine serum albumin (BSA) (Fisher BioReagents^TM, catalog number: BP1600-100)
Ethylenediamine tetraacetate acid (EDTA) 0.5 M (Fisher BioReagents^TM, catalog number: BP2482-500)
Carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) (Invitrogen^TM, catalog number: C1157)
Culture medium (see Recipes)
TCR-stimulation antibody mixture (see Recipes)
RBC lysis buffer (1×) (see Recipes)
MACS buffer (see Recipes)
T_H17 polarization medium (see Recipes)
Staining buffer (see Recipes)

Equipment

NovoCyte (ACEA Biosciences)

Software

FlowJo software (BD Biosciences)

Procedure

Naïve CD4⁺T cell isolation and seeding.
1. Day -2, pre-coat 200 μl TCR-stimulating antibody mixture/well in a 48 well-plate at 4°C.
2. Day 0, euthanize a C57BL/6J mouse (or IL17A-IRES-GFP-KI mouse), harvest the spleen and lymph nodes (LNs), and isolate naïve CD4⁺ T cells using the MojoSort™ Isolation Kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
  Note: Basic information regarding the anatomy of a laboratory mouse can be found at http://www.informatics.jax.org/cookbook/.
3. Count the cells and seed 2.5 × 10⁵ cells/well in the pre-coated 48-well plate with 500 μl T_H17 polarization medium at 37°C/5% CO₂.
  Note: To follow T cell proliferation, it is optional to stain naive CD4⁺ T cells with CFSE according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
FACS analysis of T_H17 cell differentiation (Figure 1)
Day 3 (or anytime between day 2 and day 5; we routinely observed over 40% IL17⁺ cells starting at day 2 and remaining for 3 additional days until the media's nutrients are depleted), treat the cells for 4 h with Cell Stimulation Cocktail Plus Protein Transport Inhibitors according to the manufacturer’s for 4 h, and then stain the cells with the anti-mouse CD4 antibody (1:100) for 30 min at 4°C. Next, fix and permeabilize the cells using the FoxP3 Fixation/Permeabilization Kit according to the manufacturer's instructions. Finally, stain the cells with the anti-IL-17A antibody (1:100) at RT for 15 min before FACS analysis (if cultured cells are from an IL17A-IRES-GFP-KI mouse, FACS analysis can be performed directly without the procedures described above in B).
Note: Basic principles and applications of flow cytometry can be found in the literature (McKinnon, 2018).

Figure 1. Naïve CD4⁺ T cell isolation and T_H17 differentiation. Flow cytometry data showing that more than 90% naïve CD4⁺T cells can be obtained after isolation on day 0 (left panel). Day 3, CFSE labeling data showing that more than 50% T_H17 cells can be observed post-polarization (dotted line frame).

Data analysis

FlowJo software: Main gate P1; day 0 data, choose log SSC versus CD4 for gating CD4⁺ T cells. Day 3 data; within P1-CD4 gate (same gating scheme as day 0), choose log CFSE or CD4 versus IL-17A to analyze intracellular IL-17.

Recipes

Culture medium
RPMI 1640 1×
10% fetal bovine serum (FBS)
2 mM L-glutamine
1% sodium pyruvate
1% PS
1:1,000 2-ME
Store at 4°C
TCR-stimulation antibody mixture
10 μg/ml anti-mouse CD3 and 10 μg/ml anti-mouse CD28 antibodies in PBS
RBC lysis buffer (1×)
1 ml 10× buffer with 9 ml cell culture grade water
Store at 4°C
MACS buffer
500 ml PBS containing 2.5 g bovine serum albumin (BSA) and 2 ml 0.5 M EDTA
Store at 4°C, fliter using a 0.2-μm filter
T_H17 polarization medium
Culture medium containing mIL-6 (50 ng/ml), hTGF-β1 (20 ng/ml), anti-mIL-2 (8 μg/ml), anti-mIL-4 (8 μg/ml), and anti-mIFN-γ (8 μg/ml)
Prepare immediately before use
Staining buffer
PBS containing 2% (w/v) BSA
Store at 4°C

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge support by 1R21CA227926-01A1 and 1UO1CA232488-01 from the National Institutes of Health (Cancer Moonshot program), 1R01AI114581 from the National Institutes of Health, V2014-001 from the V-Foundation, and 128436-RSG-15-180-01-LIB from the American Cancer Society (to RW). With respect, the authors wish to emphasize that this protocol builds upon previous knowledge and experimental details of T_H17 in vitro differentiation that has been established in the field for many years (Harrington, Hatton et al., 2005; Park, Li et al., 2005; Veldhoen; Hirota et al., 2009). This protocol was adapted with minor modification from previous study published by Wu et al. (2020).

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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