Recent evidence has indicated that leptin, an adipocyte-secreted hormone belonging to the helical cytokine family, significantly influences immune and autoimmune responses. We investigate here the mechanisms by which in vivo abrogation of leptin effects protects SJL/J mice from proteolipid protein peptide PLP139–151-induced EAE, an animal model of MS. Blockade of leptin with anti-leptin Abs or with a soluble mouse leptin receptor chimera (ObR:Fc), either before or after onset of EAE, improved clinical score, slowed disease progression, reduced disease relapses, inhibited PLP139–151-specific T cell proliferation, and switched cytokine secretion toward a Th2/regulatory profile. This was also confirmed by induction of forkhead box p3 (Foxp3) expression in CD4+ T cells in leptin-neutralized mice. Importantly, anti-leptin treatment induced a failure to downmodulate the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27 (p27Kip-1) in autoreactive CD4+ T cells. These effects were associated with increased tyrosine phosphorylation of both ERK1/2 and STAT6. Taken together, our data provide what we believe is a new molecular basis for leptin antagonism in EAE and envision novel strategies of leptin-based molecular targeting in the disease.
Veronica De Rosa, Claudio Procaccini, Antonio La Cava, Paolo Chieffi, Giovanni Francesco Nicoletti, Silvia Fontana, Serafino Zappacosta, Giuseppe Matarese
We describe here a patient with a clinical and molecular diagnosis of recombinase activating gene 1–deficient (RAG1-deficient) SCID, who produced specific antibodies despite minimal B cell numbers. Memory B cells were detected and antibodies were produced not only against some vaccines and infections, but also against autoantigens. The patient had severely reduced levels of oligoclonal T cells expressing the αβ TCR but surprisingly normal numbers of T cells expressing the γδ TCR. Analysis at a clonal level and TCR complementarity-determining region–3 spectratyping for γδ T cells revealed a diversified oligoclonal repertoire with predominance of cells expressing a γ4-δ3 TCR. Several γδ T cell clones displayed reactivity against CMV-infected cells. These observations are compatible with 2 non–mutually exclusive explanations for the γδ T cell predominance: a developmental advantage and infection-triggered, antigen-driven peripheral expansion. The patient carried the homozygous hypomorphic R561H RAG1 mutation leading to reduced V(D)J recombination but lacked all clinical features characteristic of Omenn syndrome. This report describes a new phenotype of RAG deficiency and shows that the ability to form specific antibodies does not exclude the diagnosis of SCID.
Stephan Ehl, Klaus Schwarz, Anselm Enders, Ulrich Duffner, Ulrich Pannicke, Joachim Kühr, Françoise Mascart, Annette Schmitt-Graeff, Charlotte Niemeyer, Paul Fisch
Breach of B cell tolerance is central to the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, how B cell tolerance is subverted in human SLE is poorly understood due to difficulties in identifying relevant autoreactive B cells and in obtaining lymphoid tissue. We have circumvented these limitations by using tonsil biopsies to study autoreactive B cells (9G4 B cells), whose regulation is abnormal in SLE. Here we show that 9G4 B cells are physiologically excluded during the early stages of the GC reaction before acquiring a centroblast phenotype. Furthermore, we provide evidence to indicate that an anergic response to B cell receptor stimulation may be responsible for such behavior. In contrast, in SLE, 9G4 B cells progressed unimpeded through this checkpoint, successfully participated in GC reactions, and expanded within the post-GC IgG memory and plasma cell compartments. The faulty regulation of 9G4 B cells was not shared by RA patients. To our knowledge, this work represents the first comparative analysis of the fate of a specific autoreactive human B cell population. The results identify a defective tolerance checkpoint that appears to be specific for human SLE.
Amedeo Cappione III, Jennifer H. Anolik, Aimee Pugh-Bernard, Jennifer Barnard, Paul Dutcher, Gregg Silverman, Iñaki Sanz
NF-κB is an important component of both autoimmunity and bone destruction in RA. NF-κB–inducing kinase (NIK) is a key mediator of the alternative arm of the NF-κB pathway, which is characterized by the nuclear translocation of RelB/p52 complexes. Mice lacking functional NIK have no peripheral lymph nodes, defective B and T cells, and impaired receptor activator of NF-κB ligand–stimulated osteoclastogenesis. We investigated the role of NIK in murine models of inflammatory arthritis using Nik–/– mice. The serum transfer arthritis model is initiated by preformed antibodies and required only intact neutrophil and complement systems in recipients. While Nik–/– mice had inflammation equivalent to that of Nik+/+ controls, they showed significantly less periarticular osteoclastogenesis and less bone erosion. In contrast, Nik–/– mice were completely resistant to antigen-induced arthritis (AIA), which requires intact antigen presentation and lymphocyte function but not lymph nodes. Additionally, transfer of Nik+/+ splenocytes or T cells to Rag2–/– mice conferred susceptibility to AIA, while transfer of Nik–/– cells did not. Nik–/– mice were also resistant to a genetic, spontaneous form of arthritis, generated in mice expressing both the KRN T cell receptor and H-2g7. Thus, NIK is important in the immune and bone-destructive components of inflammatory arthritis and represents a possible therapeutic target for these diseases.
Kunihiko Aya, Muhammad Alhawagri, Amanda Hagen-Stapleton, Hideki Kitaura, Osami Kanagawa, Deborah Veis Novack
The progression of immune responses is generally associated with an increase in the overall avidity of antigen-specific T cell populations for peptide-MHC. This is thought to result from preferential expansion of high-avidity clonotypes at the expense of their low-avidity counterparts. Since T cell antigen-receptor genes do not mutate, it is puzzling that high-avidity clonotypes do not predominate from the outset. Here we provide a developmental basis for this phenomenon in the context of autoimmunity. We have carried out comprehensive studies of the diabetogenic CD8+ T cell population that targets residues 206–214 of the β cell antigen islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit–related protein (IGRP206–214) and undergoes avidity maturation as disease progresses. We find that the succession of IGRP206–214–specific clonotypes with increasing avidities during the progression of islet inflammation to overt diabetes in nonobese diabetic mice is fueled by autoimmune inflammation but opposed by systemic tolerance. As expected, naive high-avidity IGRP206–214–specific T cells respond more efficiently to antigen and are significantly more diabetogenic than their intermediate- or low-avidity counterparts. However, central and peripheral tolerance selectively limit the contribution of these high-avidity T cells to the earliest stages of disease without abrogating their ability to progressively accumulate in inflamed islets and kill β cells. These results illustrate the way in which incomplete deletion of autoreactive T cell populations of relatively high avidity can contribute to the development of pathogenic autoimmunity in the periphery.
Bingye Han, Pau Serra, Jun Yamanouchi, Abdelaziz Amrani, John F. Elliott, Peter Dickie, Teresa P. DiLorenzo, Pere Santamaria
Osteopontin (OPN) is an extracellular matrix protein of pleiotropic properties and has been recently recognized as a potential inflammatory cytokine. In this study, we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, that overexpression of OPN in synovial T cells is associated with local inflammatory milieu and that OPN acts as an important mediator in amplification and perpetuation of rheumatoid synovitis. The study revealed that mRNA expression of OPN was highly elevated in CD4+ synovial T cells derived from patients with RA, which correlated with increased OPN concentrations in synovial fluid (SF). The pattern of OPN overexpression was confined to rheumatoid synovium and correlated with coexpression of selected OPN receptors in synovial T cells, including integrins αv and β1 and CD44. RA-derived SF stimulated the expression of OPN in T cells, which was attributable to IL-10 present in SF and abrogated by anti–IL-10 antibody. Among the more than 300 autoimmune and inflammatory response genes examined, OPN selectively induced the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines known to promote migration and recruitment of inflammatory cells. Furthermore, it was evident that OPN activated transcription factor NF-κB in mononuclear cells. The study has important implications for understanding the role of OPN in rheumatoid synovitis and other inflammatory conditions.
Guangwu Xu, Hong Nie, Ningli Li, Wenxin Zheng, Dongqing Zhang, Guozhang Feng, Liqing Ni, Rong Xu, Jian Hong, Jingwu Z. Zhang
Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA) is a subepidermal blistering disorder associated with tissue-bound and circulating autoantibodies specific to type VII collagen, a major constituent of the dermal-epidermal junction. Previous attempts to transfer the disease by injection of patient autoantibodies into mice have been unsuccessful. To study the pathogenic relevance of antibodies specific to type VII collagen in vivo, we generated and characterized rabbit antibodies specific to a murine form of this antigen and passively transferred them into adult nude, BALB/c, and C57BL/6 mice. Immune rabbit IgG bound to the lamina densa of murine skin and immunoblotted type VII collagen. Mice injected with purified IgG specific to type VII collagen, in contrast to control mice, developed subepidermal skin blisters, reproducing the human disease at the clinical, histological, electron microscopical, and immunopathological levels. Titers of rabbit IgG in the serum of mice correlated with the extent of the disease. F(ab′)2 fragments of rabbit IgG specific to type VII collagen were not pathogenic. When injected into C5-deficient mice, antibodies specific to type VII collagen failed to induce the disease, whereas C5-sufficient mice were susceptible to blister induction. This animal model for EBA should facilitate further dissection of the pathogenesis of this disease and development of new therapeutic strategies.
Cassian Sitaru, Sidonia Mihai, Christoph Otto, Mircea T. Chiriac, Ingrid Hausser, Barbara Dotterweich, Hitoshi Saito, Christian Rose, Akira Ishiko, Detlef Zillikens
Extracellular proteolysis by the plasminogen/plasmin (Plg/plasmin) system and MMPs is required for tissue injury in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. We demonstrate that a Plg cascade synergizes with MMP-9/gelatinase B in vivo during dermal-epidermal separation in an experimental model of bullous pemphigoid (BP), an autoimmune disease. BP was induced in mice by antibodies to the hemidesmosomal antigen BP180. Mice deficient in MMP-9 were resistant to experimental BP, while mice deficient in Plg and both tissue Plg activator (tPA) and urokinase Plg activator (uPA) showed delayed and less intense blister formation induced by antibodies to BP180. Plg-deficient mice reconstituted locally with Plg or the active form of MMP-9 (actMMP-9), but not the proenzyme form of MMP-9 (proMMP-9), developed BP. In contrast, proMMP-9 or actMMP-9, but not Plg, reconstituted susceptibility of MMP-9–deficient mice to the skin disease. In addition, MMP-3–deficient mice injected with pathogenic IgG developed the same degree of BP and expressed levels of actMMP-9 in the skin similar to those of WT controls. Thus, the Plg/plasmin system is epistatic to MMP-9 activation and subsequent dermal-epidermal separation in BP.
Zhi Liu, Ning Li, Luis A. Diaz, Michael Shipley, Robert M. Senior, Zena Werb
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) T cells express high levels of cAMP response element modulator (CREM) that binds to the IL-2 promoter and represses the transcription of the IL-2 gene. This study was designed to identify pathways that lead to increased binding of CREM to the IL-2 promoter in SLE T cells. Ca2+/calmodulin–dependent kinase IV (CaMKIV) was found to be increased in the nucleus of SLE T cells and to be involved in the overexpression of CREM and its binding to the IL-2 promoter. Treatment of normal T cells with SLE serum resulted in increased expression of CREM protein, increased binding of CREM to the IL-2 promoter, and decreased IL-2 promoter activity and IL-2 production. This process was abolished when a dominant inactive form of CaMKIV was expressed in normal T cells. The effect of SLE serum resided within the IgG fraction and was specifically attributed to anti–TCR/CD3 autoantibodies. This study identifies CaMKIV as being responsible for the increased expression of CREM and the decreased production of IL-2 in SLE T cells and demonstrates that anti–TCR/CD3 antibodies present in SLE sera can account for the increased expression of CREM and the suppression of IL-2 production.
Yuang-Taung Juang, Ying Wang, Elena E. Solomou, Yansong Li, Christian Mawrin, Klaus Tenbrock, Vasileios C. Kyttaris, George C. Tsokos
Herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM), a TNF receptor superfamily member, has been previously described as a T cell costimulatory receptor. Surprisingly, HVEM–/– T cells showed enhanced responses to in vitro concanavalin A (ConA) stimulation when compared with WT T cells. Consistent with these findings, HVEM–/– mice exhibited increased morbidity and mortality as compared with WT mice in a model of ConA-mediated T cell–dependent autoimmune hepatitis. HVEM–/– mice produced higher levels of multiple cytokines, which were dependent on the presence of CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, HVEM–/– mice were more susceptible to MOG peptide–induced experimental autoimmune encephalopathy, and they showed increased T cell proliferation and cytokine production in response to antigen-specific challenge. Taken together, our data revealed an unexpected regulatory role of HVEM in T cell–mediated immune responses and autoimmune diseases.
Yang Wang, Sumit K. Subudhi, Robert A. Anders, James Lo, Yonglian Sun, Sarah Blink, Yugang Wang, Jing Wang, Xiaojuan Liu, Karin Mink, Daniel Degrandi, Klaus Pfeffer, Yang-Xin Fu
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