A novel splice variant of FR4 predominantly expressed in CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells.

Zhengcai Jia, Ren Zhao, Yi Tian, Zemin Huang, Zhiqiang Tian, Zhigang Shen, Qinghong Wang, Jingxue Wang, Xiaolan Fu, Yuzhang Wu

Institute of Immunology, PLA, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, PR China.

Immunological investigations 2009

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Folate receptor 4 (FR4) is recently found as a lymphoid tissue specific protein. In this study, we have identified an alternative splicing variant of the FR4 gene from murine splenocytes, termed FR4v, which is almost identical to FR4 cDNA sequence except with the retained 108 bp intron 3 between exon 3 and 4 of FR4 gene. FR4v mRNA encodes a larger protein than FR4 and is constitutively expressed on CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cell (Treg) membrane via a GPI anchor mechanism. Whether FR4v plays a redundant or unique functional role in Tregs should be investigated further in the future.

Citation

Zhengcai Jia, Ren Zhao, Yi Tian, Zemin Huang, Zhiqiang Tian, Zhigang Shen, Qinghong Wang, Jingxue Wang, Xiaolan Fu, Yuzhang Wu. A novel splice variant of FR4 predominantly expressed in CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells. Immunological investigations. 2009;38(8):718-29