Fig. 4: Adoptive transfer of CD4⁺Lrig1⁺ T cells into IBD mice significantly alleviates the autoimmune symptoms.

a Body weight change of Rag1-deficient mice transferred with CD45.1⁺CD4⁺CD45RB^high T cell alone (n = 3), or together with CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ T cells from Foxp3-IRES-GFP mice (n = 5), CD4⁺Lrig1⁺ (n = 6) or Lrig1⁻ (n = 4) T cells from C57BL/6 mice. Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (week 1 + P = 0.0121; week 2 *P = 0.0122, +P = 0.0336, ++P = 0.0042; ***P < 0.0001, +++P < 0.0001). + symbol shows versus CD4⁺Lrig1⁻ T cells, * symbol shows versus CD4⁺CD45RB^high T cells only. b Representative image of macroscopic changes in the colon from each recipient group. c Representative images of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining (left) and the combined histopathological clinical scores (right) of large intestines. Scale bar indicates 200 μm. CD45.1⁺CD4⁺CD45RB^high T cell alone (n = 5), or together with CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ T cells (n = 5), CD4⁺Lrig1⁺ (n = 6), or Lrig1⁻ (n = 3) T cells. Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (**P = 0.0022 CD45RB^hi only vs + CD4⁺Foxp3⁺, **P = 0.0017 CD45RB^hi only vs + CD4⁺Lrig1⁺, ***P = 0.0007 + CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ vs + CD4⁺Lrig1⁻, **^*P = 0.0005 + CD4⁺Lrig1⁻ vs + CD4⁺Lrig1⁺). d Representative images of splenomegaly from each recipient group. e The level of CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ cells among CD45.2⁺TCRβ⁺ T cells in the re-stimulated lymphocytes from the colonic lamina propria of each recipient group (n = 3). Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (*P = 0.0456 + CD4⁺Foxp3⁺ vs + CD4⁺Lrig1⁻, *P = 0.0107 + CD4⁺Lrig1⁻ vs + CD4⁺Lrig1⁺, **P = 0.009 CD45RB^hi only vs +CD4⁺Foxp3⁺, **P = 0.0024 CD45RB^hi only vs +CD4⁺Lrig1⁺). f Serum concentration of TNFα or IL-1β in each recipient mice (n = 3). Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (*P = 0.0347, ***P = 0.0004). g Heatmap showing the expression level of suppressive signature genes in Lrig1⁺ or Lrig1⁻ cells from mouse splenic CD4⁺ T cells (n = 3). h GSEA plots comparing CD4⁺Lrig1⁺ and CD4⁺Lrig1⁻ T cell populations using the gene sets of Foxp3-target clusters and the upregulated genes in T_reg cells compared to conventional T cells (cgp.v.7.4.symbols and ImmuneSigDB.v.7.4.symbols). Data were collected from at least three independent experiments. Statistical significance was measured by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (a), one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test (c, e), and two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test (f). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.