1
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Zhang Y, Lu Y, Gao Y, Liang X, Zhang R, Wang X, Zou X, Yang W. Effects of Aire on perforin expression in BMDCs via TLR7/8 and its therapeutic effect on type 1 diabetes. Int Immunopharmacol 2023; 117:109890. [PMID: 36805202 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.109890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 01/30/2023] [Accepted: 02/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023]
Abstract
AIMS Type 1 diabetes, as a kind of autoimmune diseases, usually results from the broken-down of self-tolerance. Autoimmune regulator (Aire), as a transcription factor, induces peripheral tolerance by regulating Toll-like receptor (TLR) expression in dendritic cells (DCs). Several studies have recently identified a small population of perforin-expressing DCs, which is an important population of tolerogenic DCs (tolDCs) that restricts autoreactive T cells in vivo through a perforin-mediated mechanism. Thus, the present study explored the specific relationship among Aire, perforin-expressing DCs and immune tolerance, as well as their roles in type 1 diabetes. METHODS We conducted studies based on the Aire-overexpressing bone marrow-derived dendritic cell (BMDC) model. And through in vitro and in vivo experiments to observe that Aire-overexpressing BMDCs which express perforin induce immune tolerance and treat type 1 diabetes via TLR7/8. RESULTS Aire enhances the expression of perforin in BMDCs after treatment with the TLR7/8 ligand as well as promotes the expression of TLR7/8 and myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88)-dependent pathway molecules. Aire-overexpressing BMDCs mediate apoptosis of allogeneic CD8+ T cells via perforin in vitro. Moreover, Aire-overexpressing BMDCs enhance the therapeutic effect of type 1 diabetes in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice via perforin and induce apoptosis of autoreactive CD8+ T cells in vivo. CONCLUSIONS These results provide an experimental basis for comprehensively elucidating the role and significance of Aire expression in peripheral DCs, thereby providing new ideas for the treatment of autoimmune diseases by using Aire as a target to induce the production of perforin-expressing DCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Zhang
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yaoping Lu
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yan Gao
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Xiaojing Liang
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Rongchao Zhang
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Xiaoya Wang
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Xueyang Zou
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Wei Yang
- Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
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2
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Kaiser C, Bradu A, Gamble N, Caldwell JA, Koh AS. AIRE in context: Leveraging chromatin plasticity to trigger ectopic gene expression. Immunol Rev 2022; 305:59-76. [PMID: 34545959 PMCID: PMC9250823 DOI: 10.1111/imr.13026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2021] [Accepted: 08/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The emergence of antigen receptor diversity in clonotypic lymphocytes drove the evolution of a novel gene, Aire, that enabled the adaptive immune system to discriminate foreign invaders from self-constituents. AIRE functions in the epithelial cells of the thymus to express genes highly restricted to alternative cell lineages. This somatic plasticity facilitates the selection of a balanced repertoire of T cells that protects the host from harmful self-reactive clones, yet maintains a wide range of affinities for virtually any foreign antigen. Here, we review the latest understanding of AIRE's molecular actions with a focus on its interplay with chromatin. We argue that AIRE is a multi-valent chromatin effector that acts late in the transcription cycle to modulate the activity of previously poised non-coding regulatory elements of tissue-specific genes. We postulate a role for chromatin instability-caused in part by ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling-that variably sets the scope of the accessible landscape on which AIRE can act. We highlight AIRE's intrinsic repressive function and its relevance in providing feedback control. We synthesize these recent advances into a putative model for the mechanistic modes by which AIRE triggers ectopic transcription for immune repertoire selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Kaiser
- Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Alexandra Bradu
- Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Noah Gamble
- Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Jason A. Caldwell
- Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Andrew S. Koh
- Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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3
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Li Y, Teteloshvili N, Tan S, Rao S, Han A, Yang YG, Creusot RJ. Humanized Mice Reveal New Insights Into the Thymic Selection of Human Autoreactive CD8 + T Cells. Front Immunol 2019; 10:63. [PMID: 30778347 PMCID: PMC6369192 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2018] [Accepted: 01/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Thymic selection constitutes the first checkpoint in T-cell development to purge autoreactive T cells. Most of our understanding of this process comes from animal models because of the challenges of studying thymopoiesis and how T cell receptor (TCR) specificity impacts thymocyte phenotype in humans. We developed a humanized mouse model involving the introduction of autoreactive TCRs and cognate autoantigens that enables the analysis of selection of human T cells in human thymic tissue in vivo. Here, we describe the thymic development of MART1-specific autoreactive CD8+ T cells that normally escape deletion and how their phenotype and survival are affected by introduction of the missing epitope in the hematopoietic lineage. Expression of the epitope in a fraction of hematopoietic cells, including all major types of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), led to profound yet incomplete deletion of these T cells. Upregulation of PD-1 upon antigen encounter occurred through the different stages of thymocyte development. PD-1 and CCR7 expression were mutually exclusive in both transgenic and non-transgenic thymocytes, challenging the view that CCR7 is necessary for negative selection in humans. In the presence of antigen, MART1-reactive T cells down-regulated TCR, CD3, CD8, and CD4 in the thymus and periphery. Moreover, expression of secondary TCRs influences MHC class I-restricted T cells to develop as CD4+, particularly regulatory T cells. This new model constitutes a valuable tool to better understand the development of autoreactive T cells identified in different human autoimmune diseases and the role of different APC subsets in their selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Li
- The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.,International Center of Future Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China.,Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Nato Teteloshvili
- Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.,Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Shulian Tan
- The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.,International Center of Future Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China.,Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Samhita Rao
- Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.,Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Arnold Han
- Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.,Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Yong-Guang Yang
- The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.,International Center of Future Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China.,Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Rémi J Creusot
- Columbia Center for Translational Immunology and Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.,Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
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4
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Villegas JA, Gradolatto A, Truffault F, Roussin R, Berrih-Aknin S, Le Panse R, Dragin N. Cultured Human Thymic-Derived Cells Display Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cell Phenotype and Functionality. Front Immunol 2018; 9:1663. [PMID: 30083154 PMCID: PMC6064927 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2018] [Accepted: 07/04/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Thymic epithelial cells are one of the main components of the thymic microenvironment required for T-cell development. In this work, we describe an efficient method free of enzymatic and Facs-sorted methods to culture human medullary thymic epithelial cells without affecting the cell phenotypic, physiologic and functional features. Human medulla thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) are obtained by culturing thymic biopsies explants. After 7 days of primo-culture, mTECs keep their ability to express key molecules involved in immune tolerance processes such as autoimmune regulator, tissue-specific antigens, chemokines, and cytokines. In addition, the cells sensor their cultured environment and consequently adjust their gene expression network. Therefore, we describe and provide a human mTEC model that may be used to test the effect of various molecules on thymic epithelial cell homeostasis and physiology. This method should allow the investigations of the specificities and the knowledge of human mTECs in normal or pathological conditions and therefore discontinue the extrapolations done on the murine models.
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Affiliation(s)
- José A Villegas
- INSERM, AIM, Center of Research in Myology, UMRS974, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| | - Angeline Gradolatto
- INSERM, AIM, Center of Research in Myology, UMRS974, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| | - Frédérique Truffault
- INSERM, AIM, Center of Research in Myology, UMRS974, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| | | | - Sonia Berrih-Aknin
- INSERM, AIM, Center of Research in Myology, UMRS974, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| | - Rozen Le Panse
- INSERM, AIM, Center of Research in Myology, UMRS974, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| | - Nadine Dragin
- INSERM, AIM, Center of Research in Myology, UMRS974, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.,Inovarion, Paris, France
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5
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Abstract
About two decades ago, cloning of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene materialized one of the most important actors on the scene of self-tolerance. Thymic transcription of genes encoding tissue-specific antigens (ts-ags) is activated by AIRE protein and embodies the essence of thymic self-representation. Pathogenic AIRE variants cause the autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1, which is a rare and complex disease that is gaining attention in research on autoimmunity. The animal models of disease, although not identically reproducing the human picture, supply fundamental information on mechanisms and extent of AIRE action: thanks to its multidomain structure, AIRE localizes to chromatin enclosing the target genes, binds to histones, and offers an anchorage to multimolecular complexes involved in initiation and post-initiation events of gene transcription. In addition, AIRE enhances mRNA diversity by favoring alternative mRNA splicing. Once synthesized, ts-ags are presented to, and cause deletion of the self-reactive thymocyte clones. However, AIRE function is not restricted to the activation of gene transcription. AIRE would control presentation and transfer of self-antigens for thymic cellular interplay: such mechanism is aimed at increasing the likelihood of engagement of the thymocytes that carry the corresponding T-cell receptors. Another fundamental role of AIRE in promoting self-tolerance is related to the development of thymocyte anergy, as thymic self-representation shapes at the same time the repertoire of regulatory T cells. Finally, AIRE seems to replicate its action in the secondary lymphoid organs, albeit the cell lineage detaining such property has not been fully characterized. Delineation of AIRE functions adds interesting data to the knowledge of the mechanisms of self-tolerance and introduces exciting perspectives of therapeutic interventions against the related diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Perniola
- Department of Pediatrics, Neonatal Intensive Care, Vito Fazzi Regional Hospital, Lecce, Italy
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6
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Fishman D, Kisand K, Hertel C, Rothe M, Remm A, Pihlap M, Adler P, Vilo J, Peet A, Meloni A, Podkrajsek KT, Battelino T, Bruserud Ø, Wolff ASB, Husebye ES, Kluger N, Krohn K, Ranki A, Peterson H, Hayday A, Peterson P. Autoantibody Repertoire in APECED Patients Targets Two Distinct Subgroups of Proteins. Front Immunol 2017; 8:976. [PMID: 28861084 PMCID: PMC5561390 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2017] [Accepted: 07/31/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
High titer autoantibodies produced by B lymphocytes are clinically important features of many common autoimmune diseases. APECED patients with deficient autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene collectively display a broad repertoire of high titer autoantibodies, including some which are pathognomonic for major autoimmune diseases. AIRE deficiency severely reduces thymic expression of gene-products ordinarily restricted to discrete peripheral tissues, and developing T cells reactive to those gene-products are not inactivated during their development. However, the extent of the autoantibody repertoire in APECED and its relation to thymic expression of self-antigens are unclear. We here undertook a broad protein array approach to assess autoantibody repertoire in APECED patients. Our results show that in addition to shared autoantigen reactivities, APECED patients display high inter-individual variation in their autoantigen profiles, which collectively are enriched in evolutionarily conserved, cytosolic and nuclear phosphoproteins. The APECED autoantigens have two major origins; proteins expressed in thymic medullary epithelial cells and proteins expressed in lymphoid cells. These findings support the hypothesis that specific protein properties strongly contribute to the etiology of B cell autoimmunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dmytro Fishman
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.,Quretec Ltd., Tartu, Estonia
| | - Kai Kisand
- Institute of Biomedical and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | | | | | - Anu Remm
- Institute of Biomedical and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Maire Pihlap
- Institute of Biomedical and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Priit Adler
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.,Quretec Ltd., Tartu, Estonia
| | - Jaak Vilo
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.,Quretec Ltd., Tartu, Estonia
| | - Aleksandr Peet
- Children's Clinic of Tartu University Hospital, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Antonella Meloni
- Pediatric Clinic II, Ospedale Microcitemico, Cagliari, Italy.,Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Science, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
| | - Katarina Trebusak Podkrajsek
- Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University Children's Hospital, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Tadej Battelino
- Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University Children's Hospital, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Øyvind Bruserud
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Anette S B Wolff
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Eystein S Husebye
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Nicolas Kluger
- Department of Dermatology, Allergology and Venereology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Helsinki, Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kai Krohn
- Department of Dermatology, Allergology and Venereology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Helsinki, Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Annamari Ranki
- Department of Dermatology, Allergology and Venereology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Helsinki, Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Hedi Peterson
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.,Quretec Ltd., Tartu, Estonia
| | - Adrian Hayday
- Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, King's College, Guy's Hospital, London, United Kingdom
| | - Pärt Peterson
- Institute of Biomedical and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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7
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Devarapu SK, Lorenz G, Kulkarni OP, Anders HJ, Mulay SR. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Autoimmunity and Lupus Nephritis. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2017; 332:43-154. [PMID: 28526137 DOI: 10.1016/bs.ircmb.2016.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Autoimmunity involves immune responses directed against self, which are a result of defective self/foreign distinction of the immune system, leading to proliferation of self-reactive lymphocytes, and is characterized by systemic, as well as tissue-specific, inflammation. Numerous mechanisms operate to ensure the immune tolerance to self-antigens. However, monogenetic defects or genetic variants that weaken immune tolerance render susceptibility to the loss of immune tolerance, which is further triggered by environmental factors. In this review, we discuss the phenomenon of immune tolerance, genetic and environmental factors that influence the immune tolerance, factors that induce autoimmunity such as epigenetic and transcription factors, neutrophil extracellular trap formation, extracellular vesicles, ion channels, and lipid mediators, as well as costimulatory or coinhibitory molecules that contribute to an autoimmune response. Further, we discuss the cellular and molecular mechanisms of autoimmune tissue injury and inflammation during systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis.
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Affiliation(s)
- S K Devarapu
- Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik IV, Klinikum der Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - G Lorenz
- Klinikum rechts der Isar, Abteilung für Nephrologie, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | | | - H-J Anders
- Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik IV, Klinikum der Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - S R Mulay
- Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik IV, Klinikum der Universität München, Munich, Germany.
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8
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Dragin N, Bismuth J, Cizeron-Clairac G, Biferi MG, Berthault C, Serraf A, Nottin R, Klatzmann D, Cumano A, Barkats M, Le Panse R, Berrih-Aknin S. Estrogen-mediated downregulation of AIRE influences sexual dimorphism in autoimmune diseases. J Clin Invest 2016; 126:1525-37. [PMID: 26999605 PMCID: PMC4811157 DOI: 10.1172/jci81894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 124] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2015] [Accepted: 01/21/2016] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Autoimmune diseases affect 5% to 8% of the population, and females are more susceptible to these diseases than males. Here, we analyzed human thymic transcriptome and revealed sex-associated differences in the expression of tissue-specific antigens that are controlled by the autoimmune regulator (AIRE), a key factor in central tolerance. We hypothesized that the level of AIRE is linked to sexual dimorphism susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. In human and mouse thymus, females expressed less AIRE (mRNA and protein) than males after puberty. These results were confirmed in purified murine thymic epithelial cells (TECs). We also demonstrated that AIRE expression is related to sexual hormones, as male castration decreased AIRE thymic expression and estrogen receptor α-deficient mice did not show a sex disparity for AIRE expression. Moreover, estrogen treatment resulted in downregulation of AIRE expression in cultured human TECs, human thymic tissue grafted to immunodeficient mice, and murine fetal thymus organ cultures. AIRE levels in human thymus grafted in immunodeficient mice depended upon the sex of the recipient. Estrogen also upregulated the number of methylated CpG sites in the AIRE promoter. Together, our results indicate that in females, estrogen induces epigenetic changes in the AIRE gene, leading to reduced AIRE expression under a threshold that increases female susceptibility to autoimmune diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Dragin
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University of Paris 06, Paris, France
- INSERM U974, Paris, France
- CNRS FRE 3617, Paris, France
- AIM, Institute of Myology, Paris, France
| | - Jacky Bismuth
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University of Paris 06, Paris, France
- INSERM U974, Paris, France
- CNRS FRE 3617, Paris, France
- AIM, Institute of Myology, Paris, France
| | | | - Maria Grazia Biferi
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University of Paris 06, Paris, France
- INSERM U974, Paris, France
- CNRS FRE 3617, Paris, France
- AIM, Institute of Myology, Paris, France
| | - Claire Berthault
- INSERM U668, Unit for Lymphopoiesis, Immunology Department, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
- Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Cellule Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Alain Serraf
- Hôpital Marie Lannelongue, Le Plessis–Robinson, France
| | - Rémi Nottin
- Hôpital Marie Lannelongue, Le Plessis–Robinson, France
| | - David Klatzmann
- Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Biotherapy, Paris, France
| | - Ana Cumano
- INSERM U668, Unit for Lymphopoiesis, Immunology Department, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
| | - Martine Barkats
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University of Paris 06, Paris, France
- INSERM U974, Paris, France
- CNRS FRE 3617, Paris, France
- AIM, Institute of Myology, Paris, France
| | - Rozen Le Panse
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University of Paris 06, Paris, France
- INSERM U974, Paris, France
- CNRS FRE 3617, Paris, France
- AIM, Institute of Myology, Paris, France
| | - Sonia Berrih-Aknin
- Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University of Paris 06, Paris, France
- INSERM U974, Paris, France
- CNRS FRE 3617, Paris, France
- AIM, Institute of Myology, Paris, France
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9
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Abstract
The autoimmune regulator (Aire) was initially identified as the gene causing multiorgan system autoimmunity in humans, and deletion of this gene in mice also resulted in organ-specific autoimmunity. Aire regulates the expression of tissue-specific antigens (TSAs) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs), which play a critical role in the negative selection of autoreactive T cells and the generation of regulatory T cells. More recently, the role of Aire in the development of mTECs has helped elucidate its ability to present the spectrum of TSAs needed to prevent autoimmunity. Molecular characterization of the functional domains of Aire has revealed multiple binding partners that assist Aire's function in altering gene transcription and chromatin remodeling. These recent advances have further highlighted the importance of Aire in central tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Chan
- Diabetes Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California
| | - Mark S. Anderson
- Diabetes Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California
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10
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Meredith M, Zemmour D, Mathis D, Benoist C. Aire controls gene expression in the thymic epithelium with ordered stochasticity. Nat Immunol 2015; 16:942-9. [PMID: 26237550 PMCID: PMC4632529 DOI: 10.1038/ni.3247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 133] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2015] [Accepted: 07/09/2015] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The transcription factor Aire controls immunological tolerance by inducing the ectopic thymic expression of many tissue-specific genes, acting broadly by removing stops on the transcriptional machinery. To better understand Aire's specificity, we performed single-cell RNA-seq and DNA-methylation analysis of Aire-sufficient and Aire-deficient medullary epithelial cells (mTECs). Each of Aire's target genes was induced in only a minority of mTECs, independently of DNA-methylation patterns, as small inter-chromosomal gene clusters activated in concert in a proportion of mTECs. These microclusters differed between individual mice. Thus, our results suggest an organization of the DNA or of the epigenome that results from stochastic determinism but is 'bookmarked' and stable through mTEC divisions, which ensures more effective presentation of self antigens and favors diversity of self-tolerance between individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Meredith
- Division of Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, and Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA 02115, USA
| | - David Zemmour
- Division of Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, and Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA 02115, USA
| | - Diane Mathis
- Division of Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, and Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA 02115, USA
| | - Christophe Benoist
- Division of Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, and Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA 02115, USA
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11
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Alvarez I, Collado JA, Colobran R, Carrascal M, Ciudad MT, Canals F, James EA, Kwok WW, Gärtner M, Kyewski B, Pujol-Borrell R, Jaraquemada D. Central T cell tolerance: Identification of tissue-restricted autoantigens in the thymus HLA-DR peptidome. J Autoimmun 2015; 60:12-9. [PMID: 25911201 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaut.2015.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2015] [Revised: 03/12/2015] [Accepted: 03/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Promiscuous gene expression (pGE) of tissue-restricted self-antigens (TRA) in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is in part driven by the Autoimmune Regulator gene (AIRE) and essential for self-tolerance. The link between AIRE functional mutations and multi-organ autoimmunity in human and mouse supports the role of pGE. Deep sequencing of the transcriptome revealed that mouse mTECs potentially transcribe an unprecedented range of >90% of all genes. Yet, it remains unclear to which extent these low-level transcripts are actually translated into proteins, processed and presented by thymic APCs to induce tolerance. To address this, we analyzed the HLA-DR-associated thymus peptidome. Within a large panel of peptides from abundant proteins, two TRA peptides were identified: prostate-specific semenogelin-1 (an autoantigen in autoimmune chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome) and central nervous system-specific contactin-2 (an autoantigen in multiple sclerosis). Thymus expression of both genes was restricted to mTECs. SEMG1 expression was confined to mature HLA-DR(hi) mTECs of male and female donors and was AIRE-dependent, whereas CNTN2 was apparently AIRE-independent and was expressed by both populations of mTECs. Our findings establish a link between pGE, MHC-II peptide presentation and autoimmunity for bona fide human TRAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iñaki Alvarez
- Immunology Unit, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Dept of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Javier A Collado
- Immunology Unit, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Dept of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Roger Colobran
- Dept of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Immunology Division, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron (HUVH), Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Passeig Vall d'Hebron 119-129, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Montserrat Carrascal
- CSIC/UAB Proteomics Laboratory, IIBB-CSIC, IDIBAPS, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - M Teresa Ciudad
- Immunology Unit, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Dept of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Françesc Canals
- Proteomics Laboratory, Medical Oncology Research Program, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Eddie A James
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - William W Kwok
- Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Martina Gärtner
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Bruno Kyewski
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Ricardo Pujol-Borrell
- Dept of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Immunology Division, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron (HUVH), Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Passeig Vall d'Hebron 119-129, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Dolores Jaraquemada
- Immunology Unit, Institut de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Dept of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
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12
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Giménez-Barcons M, Casteràs A, Armengol MDP, Porta E, Correa PA, Marín A, Pujol-Borrell R, Colobran R. Autoimmune predisposition in Down syndrome may result from a partial central tolerance failure due to insufficient intrathymic expression of AIRE and peripheral antigens. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2014; 193:3872-9. [PMID: 25217160 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1400223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2023]
Abstract
Down syndrome (DS), or trisomy of chromosome 21, is the most common genetic disorder associated with autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune regulator protein (AIRE), a transcription factor located on chromosome 21, plays a crucial role in autoimmunity by regulating promiscuous gene expression (pGE). To investigate if autoimmunity in DS is promoted by the reduction of pGE owing to dysregulation of AIRE, we assessed the expression of AIRE and of several peripheral tissue-restricted Ag genes by quantitative PCR in thymus samples from 19 DS subjects and 21 euploid controls. Strikingly, despite the 21 trisomy, AIRE expression was significantly reduced by 2-fold in DS thymuses compared with controls, which was also confirmed by fluorescent microscopy. Allele-specific quantification of intrathymic AIRE showed that despite its lower expression, the three copies are expressed. More importantly, decreased expression of AIRE was accompanied by a reduction of pGE because expression of tissue-restricted Ags, CHRNA1, GAD1, PLP1, KLK3, SAG, TG, and TSHR, was reduced. Of interest, thyroid dysfunction (10 cases of hypothyroidism and 1 of Graves disease) developed in 11 of 19 (57.9%) of the DS individuals and in none of the 21 controls. The thymuses of these DS individuals contained significantly lower levels of AIRE and thyroglobulin, to which tolerance is typically lost in autoimmune thyroiditis leading to hypothyroidism. Our findings provide strong evidence for the fundamental role of AIRE and pGE, namely, central tolerance, in the predisposition to autoimmunity of DS individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mireia Giménez-Barcons
- Divisió d'Immunologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona 08035, Spain
| | - Anna Casteràs
- Divisió d'Endocrinologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona 08035, Spain
| | - Maria del Pilar Armengol
- Institut d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08916, Spain; and
| | - Eduard Porta
- Institut d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08916, Spain; and
| | - Paula A Correa
- Institut d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08916, Spain; and
| | - Ana Marín
- Divisió d'Immunologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona 08035, Spain
| | - Ricardo Pujol-Borrell
- Divisió d'Immunologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona 08035, Spain; Departament de Biologia Cellular, de Fisiologia i d'Immunologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Spain
| | - Roger Colobran
- Divisió d'Immunologia, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona 08035, Spain; Departament de Biologia Cellular, de Fisiologia i d'Immunologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Spain
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13
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Wolff ASB, Kärner J, Owe JF, Oftedal BEV, Gilhus NE, Erichsen MM, Kämpe O, Meager A, Peterson P, Kisand K, Willcox N, Husebye ES. Clinical and serologic parallels to APS-I in patients with thymomas and autoantigen transcripts in their tumors. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2014; 193:3880-90. [PMID: 25230752 PMCID: PMC4190667 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1401068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Patients with the autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS-I), caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene, and myasthenia gravis (MG) with thymoma, show intriguing but unexplained parallels. They include uncommon manifestations like autoimmune adrenal insufficiency (AI), hypoparathyroidism, and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis plus autoantibodies neutralizing IL-17, IL-22, and type I IFNs. Thymopoiesis in the absence of AIRE is implicated in both syndromes. To test whether these parallels extend further, we screened 247 patients with MG, thymoma, or both for clinical features and organ-specific autoantibodies characteristic of APS-I patients, and we assayed 26 thymoma samples for transcripts for AIRE and 16 peripheral tissue-specific autoantigens (TSAgs) by quantitative PCR. We found APS-I-typical autoantibodies and clinical manifestations, including chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, AI, and asplenia, respectively, in 49 of 121 (40%) and 10 of 121 (8%) thymoma patients, but clinical features seldom occurred together with the corresponding autoantibodies. Both were rare in other MG subgroups (n = 126). In 38 patients with APS-I, by contrast, we observed neither autoantibodies against muscle Ags nor any neuromuscular disorders. Whereas relative transcript levels for AIRE and 7 of 16 TSAgs showed the expected underexpression in thymomas, levels were increased for four of the five TSAgs most frequently targeted by these patients' autoantibodies. Therefore, the clinical and serologic parallels to APS-I in patients with thymomas are not explained purely by deficient TSAg transcription in these aberrant AIRE-deficient tumors. We therefore propose additional explanations for the unusual autoimmune biases they provoke. Thymoma patients should be monitored for potentially life-threatening APS-I manifestations such as AI and hypoparathyroidism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anette S B Wolff
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway;
| | - Jaanika Kärner
- Molecular Pathology Group, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50090 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Jone F Owe
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
| | | | - Nils Erik Gilhus
- Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
| | - Martina M Erichsen
- Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
| | - Olle Kämpe
- Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Anthony Meager
- Biotherapeutics Group, The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, South Mimms, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 3QG, United Kingdom; and
| | - Pärt Peterson
- Molecular Pathology Group, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50090 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Kai Kisand
- Molecular Pathology Group, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, 50090 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Nick Willcox
- Department of Clinical Neurology, Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom
| | - Eystein S Husebye
- Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, 5021 Bergen, Norway; Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway
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14
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Skogberg G, Lundberg V, Lindgren S, Gudmundsdottir J, Sandström K, Kämpe O, Annerén G, Gustafsson J, Sunnegårdh J, van der Post S, Telemo E, Berglund M, Ekwall O. Altered expression of autoimmune regulator in infant down syndrome thymus, a possible contributor to an autoimmune phenotype. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2014; 193:2187-95. [PMID: 25038256 PMCID: PMC4135177 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1400742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2014] [Accepted: 06/18/2014] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Down syndrome (DS), caused by trisomy of chromosome 21, is associated with immunological dysfunctions such as increased frequency of infections and autoimmune diseases. Patients with DS share clinical features, such as autoimmune manifestations and specific autoantibodies, with patients affected by autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1. Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 is caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene, located on chromosome 21, which regulates the expression of tissue-restricted Ags (TRAs) in thymic epithelial cells. We investigated the expression of AIRE and TRAs in DS and control thymic tissue using quantitative PCR. AIRE mRNA levels were elevated in thymic tissue from DS patients, and trends toward increased expression of the AIRE-controlled genes INSULIN and CHRNA1 were found. Immunohistochemical stainings showed altered cell composition and architecture of the thymic medulla in DS individuals with increased frequencies of AIRE-positive medullary epithelial cells and CD11c-positive dendritic cells as well as enlarged Hassall's corpuscles. In addition, we evaluated the proteomic profile of thymic exosomes in DS individuals and controls. DS exosomes carried a broader protein pool and also a larger pool of unique TRAs compared with control exosomes. In conclusion, the increased AIRE gene dose in DS could contribute to an autoimmune phenotype through multiple AIRE-mediated effects on homeostasis and function of thymic epithelial cells that affect thymic selection processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriel Skogberg
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden;
| | - Vanja Lundberg
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Susanne Lindgren
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Judith Gudmundsdottir
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Pediatrics at the Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Gothenburg, 416 86 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Kerstin Sandström
- Department of Pediatric Anesthesia and Intensive Care at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 416 86 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Olle Kämpe
- Centre of Molecular Medicine, Department of Medicine (Solna), Karolinska Institutet, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden; Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, 750 03 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Göran Annerén
- Department of Immunology, Genetics, and Pathology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jan Gustafsson
- Department of Women's and Children´s Health, Uppsala University, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden; and
| | - Jan Sunnegårdh
- Department of Pediatrics at the Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Gothenburg, 416 86 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Sjoerd van der Post
- Proteomics Core Facility at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 413 90 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Esbjörn Telemo
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Martin Berglund
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Olov Ekwall
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Pediatrics at the Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Gothenburg, 416 86 Gothenburg, Sweden
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15
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Abstract
This paper reviews the presentation of peptides by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules in the autoimmune diabetes of the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse. Islets of Langerhans contain antigen-presenting cells that capture the proteins and peptides of the beta cells' secretory granules. Peptides bound to I-A(g7), the unique MHC class II molecule of NOD mice, are presented in islets and in pancreatic lymph nodes. The various beta cell-derived peptides interact with selected CD4 T cells to cause inflammation and beta cell demise. Many autoreactive T cells are found in NOD mice, but not all have a major role in the initiation of the autoimmune process. I emphasize here the evidence pointing to insulin autoreactivity as a seminal component in the diabetogenic process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emil R Unanue
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110;
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17
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Exploring the MHC-peptide matrix of central tolerance in the human thymus. Nat Commun 2013; 4:2039. [PMID: 23783831 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2012] [Accepted: 05/21/2013] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Ever since it was discovered that central tolerance to self is imposed on developing T cells in the thymus through their interaction with self-peptide major histocompatibility complexes on thymic antigen-presenting cells, immunologists have speculated about the nature of these peptides, particularly in humans. Here, to shed light on the so-far unknown human thymic peptide repertoire, we analyse peptides eluted from isolated thymic dendritic cells, dendritic cell-depleted antigen-presenting cells and whole thymus. Bioinformatic analysis of the 842 identified natural major histocompatibility complex I and II ligands reveals significant cross-talk between major histocompatibility complex-class I and II pathways and differences in source protein representation between individuals as well as different antigen-presenting cells. Furthermore, several autoimmune- and tumour-related peptides, from enolase and vimentin for example, are presented in the healthy thymus. 302 peptides are directly derived from negatively selecting dendritic cells, thus providing the first global view of the peptide matrix in the human thymus that imposes self-tolerance in vivo.
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18
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Aharoni R, Aricha R, Eilam R, From I, Mizrahi K, Arnon R, Souroujon MC, Fuchs S. Age dependent course of EAE in Aire-/- mice. J Neuroimmunol 2013; 262:27-34. [PMID: 23849800 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2013.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2013] [Revised: 05/01/2013] [Accepted: 06/06/2013] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
This study explores the consequences of deficiency in the autoimmune regulator (Aire) on the susceptibility to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Increased susceptibility to EAE was found in Aire knockout (KO) compared to wild type (WT) in 6month old mice. In contrast, 2month old Aire KO mice were less susceptible to EAE than WT mice, and this age-related resistance correlated with elevated proportions of T regulatory (Treg) cells in their spleen and brain. Combined with our previous findings in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis, we suggest an age-related association between Aire and Treg cells in the susceptibility to autoimmunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rina Aharoni
- Department of Immunology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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19
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St-Jean JR, Ounissi-Benkalha H, Polychronakos C. Yeast one-hybrid screen of a thymus epithelial library identifies ZBTB7A as a regulator of thymic insulin expression. Mol Immunol 2013; 56:637-42. [PMID: 23911422 DOI: 10.1016/j.molimm.2013.05.238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2013] [Revised: 05/28/2013] [Accepted: 05/28/2013] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Insulin self-tolerance is, to a large extent, assured by the expression of small quantities of insulin by medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs). Regulation of thymic insulin expression differs from that in pancreas and its therapeutic manipulation could play an important role in the prevention of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Knowledge of the transcriptional regulators involved in the mTEC nuclear environment is essential for the development of such therapeutics. The yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) approach was used in order to identify such mTEC-specific nuclear proteins. We used a target composed of the human insulin gene promoter joined to the upstream class III VNTR allele, which is associated with both protection from T1D and higher thymic insulin expression, and a cDNA library from our insulin-producing mouse mTEC line. The Y1H screening allowed the identification of eleven proteins. An in vitro assay was used to confirm and quantify protein-DNA binding to the human insulin gene promoter alone or joined to a class I or class III VNTR allele, and identified the transcription factors ZBTB7A, JUN and EWSR1 as strong interacting partners. All three proteins could induce insulin expression in transfected HEK-293 cells, but ZBTB7A provided the most robust results especially in the presence of AIRE, with an additional 11-fold increase of the insulin mRNA levels from a co-transfected reporter driven by the class III VNTR allele. Thus, ZBTB7A is identified as a strong candidate for regulation of thymic insulin expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julien R St-Jean
- Laboratory of Endocrine Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, The McGill University Health Center, 4060 Ste-Catherine West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3Z 2Z3
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20
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Aleksic M, Liddy N, Molloy PE, Pumphrey N, Vuidepot A, Chang KM, Jakobsen BK. Different affinity windows for virus and cancer-specific T-cell receptors: implications for therapeutic strategies. Eur J Immunol 2012; 42:3174-9. [PMID: 22949370 DOI: 10.1002/eji.201242606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 191] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2012] [Revised: 08/08/2012] [Accepted: 08/31/2012] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
T-cell destiny during thymic selection depends on the affinity of the TCR for autologous peptide ligands presented in the context of MHC molecules. This is a delicately balanced process; robust binding leads to negative selection, yet some affinity for the antigen complex is required for positive selection. All TCRs of the resulting repertoire thus have some intrinsic affinity for an MHC type presenting an assortment of peptides. Generally, TCR affinities of peripheral T cells will be low toward self-derived peptides, as these would have been presented during thymic selection, whereas, by serendipity, binding to pathogen-derived peptides that are encountered de novo could be stronger. A crucial question in assessing immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer is whether natural TCR repertoires have the capacity for efficiently recognizing tumor-associated peptide antigens. Here, we report a comprehensive comparison of TCR affinities to a range of HLA-A2 presented antigens. TCRs that bind viral antigens fall within a strikingly higher affinity range than those that bind cancer-related antigens. This difference may be one of the key explanations for tumor immune escape and for the deficiencies of T-cell vaccines against cancer.
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Goris A, Liston A. The immunogenetic architecture of autoimmune disease. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 2012; 4:4/3/a007260. [PMID: 22383754 DOI: 10.1101/cshperspect.a007260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The development of most autoimmune diseases includes a strong heritable component. This genetic contribution to disease ranges from simple Mendelian inheritance of causative alleles to the complex interactions of multiple weak loci influencing risk. The genetic variants responsible for disease are being discovered through a range of strategies from linkage studies to genome-wide association studies. Despite the rapid advances in genetic analysis, substantial components of the heritable risk remain unexplained, either owing to the contribution of an as-yet unidentified, "hidden," component of risk, or through the underappreciated effects of known risk loci. Surprisingly, despite the variation in genetic control, a great deal of conservation appears in the biological processes influenced by risk alleles, with several key immunological pathways being modified in autoimmune diseases covering a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. The primary translational potential of this knowledge is in the rational design of new therapeutics to exploit the role of these key pathways in influencing disease. With significant further advances in understanding the genetic risk factors and their biological mechanisms, the possibility of genetically tailored (or "personalized") therapy may be realized.
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Affiliation(s)
- An Goris
- Division of Experimental Neurology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
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22
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Lima FA, Moreira-Filho CA, Ramos PL, Brentani H, Lima LDA, Arrais M, Bento-de-Souza LC, Bento-de-Souza L, Duarte MI, Coutinho A, Carneiro-Sampaio M. Decreased AIRE expression and global thymic hypofunction in Down syndrome. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2011; 187:3422-30. [PMID: 21856934 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1003053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The Down syndrome (DS) immune phenotype is characterized by thymus hypotrophy, higher propensity to organ-specific autoimmune disorders, and higher susceptibility to infections, among other features. Considering that AIRE (autoimmune regulator) is located on 21q22.3, we analyzed protein and gene expression in surgically removed thymuses from 14 DS patients with congenital heart defects, who were compared with 42 age-matched controls with heart anomaly as an isolated malformation. Immunohistochemistry revealed 70.48 ± 49.59 AIRE-positive cells/mm(2) in DS versus 154.70 ± 61.16 AIRE-positive cells/mm(2) in controls (p < 0.0001), and quantitative PCR as well as DNA microarray data confirmed those results. The number of FOXP3-positive cells/mm(2) was equivalent in both groups. Thymus transcriptome analysis showed 407 genes significantly hypoexpressed in DS, most of which were related, according to network transcriptional analysis (FunNet), to cell division and to immunity. Immune response-related genes included those involved in 1) Ag processing and presentation (HLA-DQB1, HLA-DRB3, CD1A, CD1B, CD1C, ERAP) and 2) thymic T cell differentiation (IL2RG, RAG2, CD3D, CD3E, PRDX2, CDK6) and selection (SH2D1A, CD74). It is noteworthy that relevant AIRE-partner genes, such as TOP2A, LAMNB1, and NUP93, were found hypoexpressed in DNA microarrays and quantitative real-time PCR analyses. These findings on global thymic hypofunction in DS revealed molecular mechanisms underlying DS immune phenotype and strongly suggest that DS immune abnormalities are present since early development, rather than being a consequence of precocious aging, as widely hypothesized. Thus, DS should be considered as a non-monogenic primary immunodeficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavia A Lima
- Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, 05403-900 São Paulo, Brazil
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23
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Colobran R, Armengol MDP, Faner R, Gärtner M, Tykocinski LO, Lucas A, Ruiz M, Juan M, Kyewski B, Pujol-Borrell R. Association of an SNP with intrathymic transcription of TSHR and Graves' disease: a role for defective thymic tolerance. Hum Mol Genet 2011; 20:3415-23. [PMID: 21642385 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddr247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Graves' disease (GD) is the paradigm of an anti-receptor autoimmune disease, with agonistic auto-antibodies against the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR-thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor) being the underlying pathogenic effector mechanism. The TSHR belongs to the category of tissue-restricted antigens, which are promiscuously expressed in the thymus and thereby induce central T cell tolerance. In order to understand the association between TSHR gene polymorphisms and GD, we tested the hypothesis that TSHR gene variants affect susceptibility to GD by influencing levels of TSHR transcription in the thymus. We show that thymic glands from non-autoimmune donors homozygous for the rs179247 SNP predisposing allele of TSHR had significantly fewer TSHR mRNA transcripts than carriers of the protective allele. In addition, in heterozygous individuals, the TSHR predisposing allele was expressed at a lower level than the protective one as demonstrated by allele-specific transcript quantification. This unbalanced allelic expression was detectable in both thymic epithelial cells and thymocytes. Since the level of self-antigen expression is known to influence the threshold of central tolerance, these results are compatible with the notion that defective central tolerance contributes to the pathogenesis of GD, a scenario already implicated in type 1 diabetes mellitus, myasthenia gravis and autoimmune myocarditis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger Colobran
- Laboratory of Immunobiology for Research and Applications to Diagnostic, Banc de Sang i Teixits, Institut d'Investigacióen Ciències de Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08916, Catalonia, Spain
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24
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Pal J, Rozsa C, Komoly S, Illes Z. Clinical and biological heterogeneity of autoimmune myasthenia gravis. J Neuroimmunol 2011; 231:43-54. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2010.10.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
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25
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Cai CQ, Zhang T, Breslin MB, Giraud M, Lan MS. Both polymorphic variable number of tandem repeats and autoimmune regulator modulate differential expression of insulin in human thymic epithelial cells. Diabetes 2011; 60:336-44. [PMID: 20876716 PMCID: PMC3012191 DOI: 10.2337/db10-0255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Polymorphic INS-VNTR plays an important role in regulating insulin transcript expression in the human thymus that leads to either insulin autoimmunity or tolerance. The molecular mechanisms underlying the INS-VNTR haplotype-dependent insulin expression are still unclear. In this study, we determined the mechanistic components underlying the differential insulin gene expression in human thymic epithelial cells, which should have profound effects on the insulin autoimmune tolerance induction. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A repetitive DNA region designated as a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) is located upstream of the human insulin gene and correlates with the incidence of type 1 diabetes. We generated six class I and two class III VNTR constructs linked to the human insulin basal promoter or SV40 heterologous promoter/enhancer and demonstrated that AIRE protein modulates the insulin promoter activities differentially through binding to the VNTR region. RESULTS Here we show that in the presence of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE), the class III VNTR haplotype is responsible for an average of three-fold higher insulin expression than class I VNTR in thymic epithelial cells. In a protein-DNA pull-down experiment, AIRE protein is capable of binding to VNTR class I and III probes. Further, the transcriptional activation of the INS-VNTR by AIRE requires the insulin basal promoter. The VNTR sequence loses its activation activity when linked to a heterologous promoter and/or enhancer. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate a type 1 diabetes predisposition encoded by the INS-VNTR locus and a critical function played by AIRE, which constitute a dual control mechanisms regulating quantitative expression of insulin in human thymic epithelial cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuan Qi Cai
- The Research Institute for Children, Children's Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
| | - Tao Zhang
- The Research Institute for Children, Children's Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
| | - Mary B. Breslin
- The Research Institute for Children, Children's Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
| | - Matthieu Giraud
- Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Michael S. Lan
- The Research Institute for Children, Children's Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Corresponding author: Michael S. Lan,
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Ko HJ, Kinkel SA, Hubert FX, Nasa Z, Chan J, Siatskas C, Hirubalan P, Toh BH, Scott HS, Alderuccio F. Transplantation of autoimmune regulator-encoding bone marrow cells delays the onset of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Eur J Immunol 2010; 40:3499-509. [PMID: 21108470 DOI: 10.1002/eji.201040679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2010] [Revised: 08/12/2010] [Accepted: 09/02/2010] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
The autoimmune regulator (AIRE) promotes "promiscuous" expression of tissue-restricted antigens (TRA) in thymic medullary epithelial cells to facilitate thymic deletion of autoreactive T-cells. Here, we show that AIRE-deficient mice showed an earlier development of myelin oligonucleotide glycoprotein (MOG)-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). To determine the outcome of ectopic Aire expression, we used a retroviral transduction system to over-express Aire in vitro, in cell lines and in bone marrow (BM). In the cell lines that included those of thymic medullary and dendritic cell origin, ectopically expressed Aire variably promoted expression of TRA including Mog and Ins2 (proII) autoantigens associated, respectively, with the autoimmune diseases multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. BM chimeras generated from BM transduced with a retrovirus encoding Aire displayed elevated levels of Mog and Ins2 expression in thymus and spleen. Following induction of EAE with MOG(35-55), transplanted mice displayed significant delay in the onset of EAE compared with control mice. To our knowledge, this is the first example showing that in vivo ectopic expression of AIRE can modulate TRA expression and alter autoimmune disease development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun-Ja Ko
- Department of Immunology, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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27
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Stoeckle C, Tolosa E. Antigen processing and presentation in multiple sclerosis. Results Probl Cell Differ 2010; 51:149-72. [PMID: 19582405 DOI: 10.1007/400_2009_22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
CD4(+) T cells play a central role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Generation, activation and effector function of these cells crucially depends on their interaction with MHC II-peptide complexes displayed by antigen presenting cells (APC). Processing and presentation of self antigens by different APC therefore influences the disease course at all stages. Selection by thymic APC leads to the generation of autoreactive T cells, which can be activated by peripheral APC. Reactivation by central nervous system APC leads to the initiation of the inflammatory response resulting in demyelination. In this review we will focus on how MHC class II antigenic epitopes are created by different APC from the thymus, the periphery and from the brain, and will discuss the relevance of the balance between creation and destruction of such epitopes in the context of MS. A solid understanding of these processes offers the possibility for designing future therapeutic strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Stoeckle
- Department of General Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Otfried-Mueller-Str. 27, 72076, Tuebingen, Germany.
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28
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Fornari TA, Donate PB, Macedo C, Marques MMC, Magalhães DA, Passos GAS. Age-related deregulation of Aire and peripheral tissue antigen genes in the thymic stroma of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice is associated with autoimmune type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM-1). Mol Cell Biochem 2010; 342:21-8. [PMID: 20414703 DOI: 10.1007/s11010-010-0464-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2009] [Accepted: 04/12/2010] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Gene expression of peripheral tissue antigens (PTAs) in stromal medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is a key process to the negative selection of autoreactive thymocytes. This phenomenon was termed "promiscuous gene expression" (PGE), which is partially controlled by the Aire gene. Nevertheless, reasons for the correlation of Aire and PTAs with the emergence of autoimmune diseases are largely unknown, though it may be a result of a chronological effect. Although the effect of Aire mutations in pathogenic autoimmunity is well know, it could not be a unique cause for autoimmunity. Independently of mutations, temporal deregulation of Aire expression may imbalance Aire-dependent PTAs and/or wide PGE. This deregulation may be an early warning sign for autoimmune diseases as it guarantees autoantigen representation in the thymus. To assess this hypothesis, we studied the expression levels of Aire, Aire-dependent (Ins2) and Aire-independent (Gad67 and Col2a1) PTAs using real-time-PCR of the thymic stromal cells of NOD mice during the development of autoimmune type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM-1). Wide PGE was studied by microarrays in which the PTA genes were identified through parallel CD80(+) mTEC 3.10 cell line expression profiling. The results show that Aire gene was down-regulated in young pre-autoimmune (pre-diabetic) NOD mice. PGE and specific PTA genes were down-regulated in adult autoimmune diabetic animals. These findings represent evidence indicating that chronological deregulation of genes important to negative selection may be associated with the development of an autoimmune disease (DM-1) in mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thaís A Fornari
- Molecular Immunogenetics Group, Department of Genetics, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (USP), 3900 Via Bandeirantes, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
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29
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Conteduca G, Ferrera F, Pastorino L, Fenoglio D, Negrini S, Sormani MP, Indiveri F, Scarrà GB, Filaci G. The role of AIRE polymorphisms in melanoma. Clin Immunol 2010; 136:96-104. [PMID: 20363194 DOI: 10.1016/j.clim.2010.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2009] [Revised: 02/10/2010] [Accepted: 03/05/2010] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Polymorphisms of AIRE, a transcription factor that up-regulates intrathymic expression of tissue-specific antigens including melanoma-associated antigens (MAAs), may variably affect the selection of MAAs-specific thymocytes, generating T-cell repertoires protecting or predisposing individuals to melanoma. We found that AIRE single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs1055311, rs1800520 and rs1800522 were significantly more frequent in healthy subjects than in melanoma patients, independently from sex, age and stages of melanoma. The presence of these SNPs was associated with increased frequency of two T-cell clonotypes specific for MAGE-1 linking their protective effect to selection/expansion of MAA-specific T cells. Interestingly, mRNA transcribed on the rs1800520 SNP showed increased free energy than the wild type suggesting that its reduced stability may be responsible for the different activity of the polymorphic AIRE molecule. This finding may contribute at identifying subjects with increased risk of developing melanoma or patients with melanoma that may take benefit from immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- G Conteduca
- Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research, University of Genoa, Italy
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30
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Berthelot JM, le Goff B, Maugars Y. Thymic Hassall's Corpuscles, Regulatory T-Cells, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Semin Arthritis Rheum 2010; 39:347-55. [DOI: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2008.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2008] [Revised: 07/03/2008] [Accepted: 08/25/2008] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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Org T, Rebane A, Kisand K, Laan M, Haljasorg U, Andreson R, Peterson P. AIRE activated tissue specific genes have histone modifications associated with inactive chromatin. Hum Mol Genet 2009; 18:4699-710. [PMID: 19744957 PMCID: PMC2778368 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddp433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2009] [Accepted: 09/08/2009] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) protein is expressed in thymic medullary epithelial cells, where it promotes the ectopic expression of tissue-restricted antigens needed for efficient negative selection of developing thymocytes. Mutations in AIRE cause APECED syndrome, which is characterized by a breakdown of self-tolerance. The molecular mechanism by which AIRE increases the expression of a variety of different genes remains unknown. Here, we studied AIRE-regulated genes using whole genome expression analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation. We show that AIRE preferentially activates genes that are tissue-specific and characterized by low levels of initial expression in stably transfected HEK293 cell model and mouse thymic medullary epithelial cells. In addition, the AIRE-regulated genes lack active chromatin marks, such as histone H3 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and acetylation (AcH3), on their promoters. We also show that during activation by AIRE, the target genes acquire histone H3 modifications associated with transcription and RNA polymerase II. In conclusion, our data show that AIRE is able to promote ectopic gene expression from chromatin associated with histone modifications characteristic to inactive genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tõnis Org
- Department of Molecular Pathology, Institute of General and Molecular Pathology and
| | - Ana Rebane
- Department of Molecular Pathology, Institute of General and Molecular Pathology and
| | - Kai Kisand
- Department of Molecular Pathology, Institute of General and Molecular Pathology and
| | - Martti Laan
- Department of Molecular Pathology, Institute of General and Molecular Pathology and
| | - Uku Haljasorg
- Department of Molecular Pathology, Institute of General and Molecular Pathology and
| | - Reidar Andreson
- Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Pärt Peterson
- Department of Molecular Pathology, Institute of General and Molecular Pathology and
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Martin-Pagola A, Pileggi A, Zahr E, Vendrame F, Damaris Molano R, Snowhite I, Ricordi C, Eisenbarth GS, Nakayama M, Pugliese A. Insulin2 gene (Ins2) transcription by NOD bone marrow-derived cells does not influence autoimmune diabetes development in NOD-Ins2 knockout mice. Scand J Immunol 2009; 70:439-46. [PMID: 19874548 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3083.2009.02316.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Insulin is a critical autoantigen for the development of autoimmune diabetes in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. About 80% of NOD females and 30-40% of NOD males develop diabetes. However, Insulin2 (Ins2) knockout NOD mice develop autoimmune diabetes with complete penetrance in both sexes, at an earlier age, and have stronger autoimmune responses to insulin. The severe diabetes phenotype observed in NOD-Ins2-/- mice suggests that lack of Ins2 expression in the thymus may compromise immunological tolerance to insulin. Insulin is a prototypical tissue specific antigen (TSA) for which tolerance is dependent on expression in thymus and peripheral lymphoid tissues. TSA are naturally expressed by medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTEC), stromal cells in peripheral lymphoid tissues and bone marrow (BM)-derived cells, mainly CD11c(+) dendritic cells. The natural expression of TSA by mTEC and stromal cells has been shown to contribute to self-tolerance. However, it is unclear whether this also applies to BM-derived cells naturally expressing TSA. To address this question, we created BM chimeras and investigated whether reintroducing Ins2 expression solely by NOD BM-derived cells delays diabetes development in NOD-Ins2-/- mice. On follow-up, NOD-Ins2-/- mice receiving Ins2-expressing NOD BM cells developed diabetes at similar rates of those receiving NOD-Ins2-/- BM cells. Diabetes developed in 64% of NOD recipients transplanted with NOD BM and in 47% of NOD mice transplanted with NOD-Ins2-/- BM (P = ns). Thus, NOD-Ins2-/- BM did not worsen diabetes in NOD recipients and Ins2 expression by NOD BM-derived cells did not delay diabetes development in NOD-Ins2-/- mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Martin-Pagola
- Diabetes Research Institute, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA
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33
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Alderuccio F, Chan J, Toh BH. Tweaking the immune system: Gene therapy-assisted autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a treatment for autoimmune disease. Autoimmunity 2009; 41:679-85. [DOI: 10.1080/08916930802197123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
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Shikama N, Nusspaumer G, Holländer GA. Clearing the AIRE: on the pathophysiological basis of the autoimmune polyendocrinopathy syndrome type-1. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am 2009; 38:273-88, vii. [PMID: 19328411 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecl.2009.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type-1 clinically manifests as the triad of hypoparathyroidism, primary adrenocortical insufficiency, and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis. Mutations in the gene that encodes the autoimmune regulator protein, AIRE, have been identified as the cause of the autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type-1. The loss of immunologic tolerance to tissue-restricted antigens consequent to an absence of AIRE expression in the thymus results in the thymic export of autoreactive T cells that initiate autoimmunity. In this article, we discuss the role of AIRE in autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type-1 and identify issues that still need to be addressed to fully understand the molecular pathophysiology of this complex syndrome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noriko Shikama
- Laboratory of Pediatric Immunology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel and The University Children's Hospital (UKBB), Basel, Switzerland
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35
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Abstract
A pool of immature T cells with a seemingly unrestricted repertoire of antigen specificities is generated life-long in the thymus. Amongst these cells are, however, thymocytes that express a strongly self-reactive antigen receptor and hence hold the potential to trigger autoimmunity. To prevent such an outcome, the thymus employs several independent but functionally related strategies that act in parallel to enforce self-tolerance. The deletion of strongly self-reactive thymocytes and the generation of regulatory T cells constitute the two most efficient mechanisms to induce and maintain immunological tolerance. Thymic epithelial cells of the medulla express for this purpose tissue-restricted self-antigens. This review will focus on the cellular and molecular mechanisms operative in the thymus to shape a repertoire of mature T cells tolerant to self-antigens.
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Affiliation(s)
- G A Holländer
- Department of Clinical-Biological Sciences, Laboratory of Pediatric Immunology, Center for Biomedicine, University of Basel and The University Children's Hospital, Switzerland.
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36
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Hubert FX, Kinkel SA, Crewther PE, Cannon PZF, Webster KE, Link M, Uibo R, O'Bryan MK, Meager A, Forehan SP, Smyth GK, Mittaz L, Antonarakis SE, Peterson P, Heath WR, Scott HS. Aire-deficient C57BL/6 mice mimicking the common human 13-base pair deletion mutation present with only a mild autoimmune phenotype. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2009; 182:3902-18. [PMID: 19265170 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.0802124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Autoimmune regulator (AIRE) is an important transcription regulator that mediates a role in central tolerance via promoting the "promiscuous" expression of tissue-specific Ags in the thymus. Although several mouse models of Aire deficiency have been described, none has analyzed the phenotype induced by a mutation that emulates the common 13-bp deletion in human APECED (autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy) by disrupting the first plant homeodomain in exon 8. Aire-deficient mice with a corresponding mutation showed some disturbance of the medullary epithelial compartment, but at the phenotypic level their T cell compartment appeared relatively normal in the thymus and periphery. An increase in the number of activated T cells was evident, and autoantibodies against several organs were detected. At the histological level, lymphocytic infiltration of several organs indicated the development of autoimmunity, although symptoms were mild and the quality of life for Aire-deficient mice appeared equivalent to wild-type littermates, with the exception of male infertility. Vbeta and CDR3 length analysis suggested that each Aire-deficient mouse developed its own polyclonal autoimmune repertoire. Finally, given the prevalence of candidiasis in APECED patients, we examined the control of infection with Candida albicans in Aire-deficient mice. No increase in disease susceptibility was found for either oral or systemic infection. These observations support the view that additional genetic and/or environmental factors contribute substantially to the overt nature of autoimmunity associated with Aire mutations, even for mutations identical to those found in humans with APECED.
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Affiliation(s)
- François-Xavier Hubert
- Division of Immunology, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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Monteiro JP, Farache J, Mercadante AC, Mignaco JA, Bonamino M, Bonomo A. Pathogenic effector T cell enrichment overcomes regulatory T cell control and generates autoimmune gastritis. THE JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY 2009; 181:5895-903. [PMID: 18941178 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.181.9.5895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Regulatory T cells (Treg) deficiency leads to a severe, systemic, and lethal disease, as showed in immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X-linked syndrome patients, and scurfy mouse. Postneonatal thymectomy autoimmune gastritis has also been attributed to the absence of Tregs. In this case however, disease is mild, organ-specific, and, more important, it is not an obligatory outcome. We addressed this paradox comparing T cell compartments in gastritis-susceptible and resistant animals. We found that neonatal thymectomy-induced gastritis is not caused by the absence of Tregs. Instead of this, it is the presence of gastritogenic T cell clones that determines susceptibility to disease. The expansion of such clones under lymphopenic conditions results in a reduced Treg:effector T cell ratio that is not enough to control gastritis development. Finally, the presence of gastritogenic clones is determined by the amount of gastric Ag expressed in the neonatal thymus, emphasizing the importance of effector repertoire variability, present even in genetically identical subjects, to organ-specific autoimmune disease susceptibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- João P Monteiro
- Divisão de Medicina Experimental, Coordenação de Pesquisa, Instituto Nacional de Câncer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Abstract
Mutations in the transcriptional regulator, Aire, cause APECED, a polyglandular autoimmune disease with monogenic transmission. Animal models of APECED have revealed that Aire plays an important role in T cell tolerance induction in the thymus, mainly by promoting ectopic expression of a large repertoire of transcripts encoding proteins normally restricted to differentiated organs residing in the periphery. The absence of Aire results in impaired clonal deletion of self-reactive thymocytes, which escape into the periphery and attack a variety of organs. In addition, Aire is a proapoptotic factor, expressed at the final maturation stage of thymic medullary epithelial cells, a function that may promote cross-presentation of the antigens encoded by Aire-induced transcripts in these cells. Transcriptional regulation by Aire is unusual in being very broad, context-dependent, probabilistic, and noisy. Structure/function analyses and identification of its interaction partners suggest that Aire may impact transcription at several levels, including nucleosome displacement during elongation and transcript splicing or other aspects of maturation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diane Mathis
- Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics, Joslin Diabetes Center; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School; and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
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Venanzi ES, Melamed R, Mathis D, Benoist C. The variable immunological self: genetic variation and nongenetic noise in Aire-regulated transcription. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008; 105:15860-5. [PMID: 18838677 PMCID: PMC2572942 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0808070105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2008] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The Aire transcription factor plays an important role in immunological self-tolerance by mediating the ectopic expression of peripheral self-antigens by thymic medullary epithelial cells (MECs), and the deletion of thymocytes that recognize them. In Aire-deficient humans or mice, central tolerance is incomplete and multiorgan autoimmune disease results. We examined the variability of Aire's effects on ectopic transcription among individual mice of three different inbred strains. Aire's function was, overall, quite similar in the three backgrounds, although generally stronger in C57BL/6 than in BALB/c or NOD mice, and a minority of Aire-regulated genes did show clear differences. Gene expression profiling of wild-type MECs from single mice, or from the two thymic lobes of the same mouse, revealed significantly greater variability in Aire-controlled ectopic gene expression than in Aire-independent transcripts. This "noisy" ectopic expression did not result from parental or early developmental imprinting, but from programming occurring after the formation of the thymic anlage, resulting from epigenetic effects or from the stochastic nature of Aire activity. Together, genetic and nongenetic variability in ectopic expression of peripheral antigens in the thymus make for differences in the portion of self determinants presented for tolerance induction. This variable self may be beneficial in preventing uniform holes in the T-cell repertoire in individuals of a species, but at the cost of variable susceptibility to autoimmunity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily S. Venanzi
- Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics, Joslin Diabetes Center; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215
| | - Rachel Melamed
- Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics, Joslin Diabetes Center; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215
| | - Diane Mathis
- Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics, Joslin Diabetes Center; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215
| | - Christophe Benoist
- Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics, Joslin Diabetes Center; Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215
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Distinct sets of alphabeta TCRs confer similar recognition of tumor antigen NY-ESO-1157-165 by interacting with its central Met/Trp residues. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008; 105:15010-5. [PMID: 18809922 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807954105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Naturally acquired immune responses against human cancers often include CD8(+) T cells specific for the cancer testis antigen NY-ESO-1. Here, we studied T cell receptor (TCR) primary structure and function of 605 HLA-A*0201/NY-ESO-1(157-165)-specific CD8 T cell clones derived from five melanoma patients. We show that an important proportion of tumor-reactive T cells preferentially use TCR AV3S1/BV8S2 chains, with remarkably conserved CDR3 amino acid motifs and lengths in both chains. All remaining T cell clones belong to two additional sets expressing BV1 or BV13 TCRs, associated with alpha-chains with highly diverse VJ usage, CDR3 amino acid sequence, and length. Yet, all T cell clonotypes recognize tumor antigen with similar functional avidity. Two residues, Met-160 and Trp-161, located in the middle region of the NY-ESO-1(157-165) peptide, are critical for recognition by most of the T cell clonotypes. Collectively, our data show that a large number of alphabeta TCRs, belonging to three distinct sets (AVx/BV1, AV3/BV8, AVx/BV13) bind pMHC with equal antigen sensitivity and recognize the same peptide motif. Finally, this in-depth study of recognition of a self-antigen suggests that in part similar biophysical mechanisms shape TCR repertoires toward foreign and self-antigens.
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Willcox N, Leite MI, Kadota Y, Jones M, Meager A, Subrahmanyam P, Dasgupta B, Morgan BP, Vincent A. Autoimmunizing mechanisms in thymoma and thymus. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2008; 1132:163-73. [PMID: 18567866 DOI: 10.1196/annals.1405.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Autoimmunizing mechanisms are very hard to study in humans, so we have focused on vital clues in thymomas and hyperplastic thymuses in myasthenia gravis (MG). According to our multi-step hypothesis: thymic epithelial cells (TEC) present epitopes from the isolated acetylcholine receptor (AChR) subunits they express, and autoimmunize helper T cells; subsequently, these evoke "early antibodies" that then attack rare thymic myoid cells expressing intact AChR; in the resulting germinal centers, autoantibodies diversify to recognize native AChR. We have studied: 1) thymomas, to identify autoimmunizing cell types, focusing on IFN-alpha, against which many patients have high titer autoantibodies, as in another highly informative autoimmune syndrome. Although IFN-alpha is much easier to label than the sparse and delicate AChR subunits, we have not yet located obviously autoimmunizing micro-environments; 2) hyperplastic MG thymuses, where we find (a) upregulation of complement receptors and regulators on hyperplastic TEC and deposition of activated C3b complement component on them, (b) absence of complement regulators from almost all myoid cells, indicating vulnerability to attack, and (c) deposition of C3b, and even of the terminal membrane attack complex, especially on the myoid cells close to the infiltrating germinal centers. The changes are very similar in over 50% of the so-called seronegative patients with generalized MG (SNMG) but without detectable autoantibodies against AChR or MuSK, consistently with other evidence that they belong to the spectrum of AChR-seropositive MG. Together, moreover, our findings implicate both myoid cells and TEC in autoimmunization, and thus strongly support our hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nick Willcox
- Neuroscience Group, Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, England, UK.
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Perniola R, Filograna O, Greco G, Pellegrino V. High prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity in Apulian patients with autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1. Thyroid 2008; 18:1027-9. [PMID: 18713028 DOI: 10.1089/thy.2008.0027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
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44
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Do NALP5 antibodies correlate with hypoparathyroidism in patients with APS-1? ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2008; 4:544-5. [PMID: 18711407 DOI: 10.1038/ncpendmet0924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2008] [Accepted: 07/01/2008] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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45
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Bibliography. Current world literature. Diabetes and the endocrine pancreas II. Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes 2008; 15:383-93. [PMID: 18594281 DOI: 10.1097/med.0b013e32830c6b8e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
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46
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Armengol MP, Sabater L, Fernández M, Ruíz M, Alonso N, Otero MJ, Martínez-Cáceres E, Jaraquemada D, Pujol-Borrell R. Influx of recent thymic emigrants into autoimmune thyroid disease glands in humans. Clin Exp Immunol 2008; 153:338-50. [PMID: 18637101 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.2008.03706.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) are considered as prototypic organ-specific autoimmune diseases, yet their underlying aetiology remains poorly understood. Among the various pathophysiological mechanisms considered, a failure of central tolerance has received little attention. Here we present evidence in favour of dysregulated thymic function playing a role in AITD. Flow-cytometric analyses conducted in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 58 AITD patients and 48 age- and-sex-matched controls showed that AITD patients have significantly higher blood levels of CD4(+)CD45RA(+), CD4(+)CD31(+) and CD4/CD8 double-positive T lymphocytes, all markers of recent thymic emigrants (RTE). In addition, the alpha-signal joint T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) content (a molecular marker of RTEs) was higher in the group of AITD patients older than 35 years than in age-matched controls. This was independent from peripheral T cell expansion as assessed by relative telomere length. Comparisons of TREC levels in peripheral blood lymphocytes and intrathyroidal lymphocytes in paired samples showed higher levels within the thyroid during the initial 30 months of the disease, indicating an influx of RTE into the thyroid during the initial stages of AITD. Additionally, a lack of correlation between TREC levels and forkhead box P3 expression suggests that the intrathyroidal RTE are not natural regulatory T cells. These results uncover a hitherto unknown correlation between altered thymic T cell export, the composition of intrathyroidal T cells and autoimmune pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- M P Armengol
- Laboratory of Immunobiology for Research and Applications to Diagnosis, Banc de Sang i Teixits, Institut d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Spain
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47
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Roisin-Bouffay C, Castellano R, Valéro R, Chasson L, Galland F, Naquet P. Mouse vanin-1 is cytoprotective for islet beta cells and regulates the development of type 1 diabetes. Diabetologia 2008; 51:1192-201. [PMID: 18463844 DOI: 10.1007/s00125-008-1017-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2008] [Accepted: 03/30/2008] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS Islet cell death is a key initiating and perpetuating event in type 1 diabetes and involves both immune-mediated and endogenous mechanisms. The epithelial pantetheinase vanin-1 is proinflammatory and cytoprotective via cysteamine release in some tissues. We investigated the impact of a vanin-1 deficiency on islet death and type 1 diabetes incidence. METHODS Vanin-1-deficient mice were produced and tested in drug-induced and autoimmune diabetes models. The contribution of vanin-1 to islet survival versus immune responses was evaluated using lymphocyte transfer and islet culture experiments. RESULTS The vanin-1/cysteamine pathway contributes to the protection of islet beta cells from streptozotocin-induced death in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, vanin-1-deficient NOD mice showed a significant aggravation of diabetes, which depended upon loss of vanin-1 expression by host tissues. This increased islet fragility was accompanied by greater CD4+ insulitis without impairment of regulatory cells. Addition of cystamine, the product of pantetheinase activity, protected islets in vitro and compensated for vanin-1 deficiency in vivo. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION This study unravels a major cytoprotective role of cysteamine for islet cells and suggests that modulation of pantetheinase activity may offer alternative strategies to maintain islet cell homeostasis.
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MESH Headings
- Amidohydrolases
- Animals
- Cell Adhesion Molecules/deficiency
- Cell Adhesion Molecules/genetics
- Cell Adhesion Molecules/metabolism
- Cell Death/physiology
- Cells, Cultured
- Cystamine/pharmacology
- Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/metabolism
- Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/pathology
- Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental/prevention & control
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/epidemiology
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/metabolism
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/pathology
- Disease Models, Animal
- Enzyme Inhibitors/pharmacology
- Female
- GPI-Linked Proteins
- Homeostasis/physiology
- Incidence
- Insulin/metabolism
- Insulin-Secreting Cells/metabolism
- Insulin-Secreting Cells/pathology
- Kaplan-Meier Estimate
- Male
- Mice
- Mice, Inbred BALB C
- Mice, Inbred NOD
- Mice, Mutant Strains
- T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/pathology
- Th1 Cells/pathology
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Affiliation(s)
- C Roisin-Bouffay
- Aix Marseille Université, Faculté des Sciences de Luminy, Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille, France
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48
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Romero P. Current State of Vaccine Therapies in Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Clin Lung Cancer 2008; 9 Suppl 1:S28-36. [DOI: 10.3816/clc.2008.s.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
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49
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Ferguson BJ, Alexander C, Rossi SW, Liiv I, Rebane A, Worth CL, Wong J, Laan M, Peterson P, Jenkinson EJ, Anderson G, Scott HS, Cooke A, Rich T. AIRE's CARD revealed, a new structure for central tolerance provokes transcriptional plasticity. J Biol Chem 2008; 283:1723-1731. [PMID: 17974569 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m707211200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Developing T cells encounter peripheral self-antigens in the thymus in order to delete autoreactive clones. It is now known that the autoimmune regulator protein (AIRE), which is expressed in thymic medullary epithelial cells, plays a key role in regulating the thymic transcription of these peripheral tissue-specific antigens. Mutations in the AIRE gene are associated with a severe multiorgan autoimmune syndrome (APECED), and autoimmune reactivities are manifest in AIRE-deficient mice. Functional AIRE protein is expressed as distinct nuclear puncta, although no structural basis existed to explain their relevance to disease. In addressing the cell biologic basis for APECED, we made the unexpected discovery that an AIRE mutation hot spot lies in a caspase recruitment domain. Combined homology modeling and in vitro data now show how APECED mutations influence the activity of this transcriptional regulator. We also provide novel in vivo evidence for AIRE's association with a global transcription cofactor, which may underlie AIRE's focal, genome-wide, alteration of the transcriptome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian J Ferguson
- Department of Pathology, Divisions of Immunology and Cellular Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP, United Kingdom
| | - Clare Alexander
- Department of Pathology, Divisions of Immunology and Cellular Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP, United Kingdom
| | - Simona W Rossi
- Medical Research Council Centre for Immune Regulation, Institute for Biomedical Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
| | - Ingrid Liiv
- Molecular Pathology, University of Tartu, Biomedicum, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Ana Rebane
- Molecular Pathology, University of Tartu, Biomedicum, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Catherine L Worth
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QP, United Kingdom
| | - Joyce Wong
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QP, United Kingdom
| | - Martti Laan
- Molecular Pathology, University of Tartu, Biomedicum, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Pärt Peterson
- Molecular Pathology, University of Tartu, Biomedicum, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Eric J Jenkinson
- Medical Research Council Centre for Immune Regulation, Institute for Biomedical Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
| | - Graham Anderson
- Medical Research Council Centre for Immune Regulation, Institute for Biomedical Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
| | - Hamish S Scott
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 3050 Melbourne, Australia
| | - Anne Cooke
- Department of Pathology, Divisions of Immunology and Cellular Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP, United Kingdom
| | - Tina Rich
- Department of Pathology, Divisions of Immunology and Cellular Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP, United Kingdom.
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50
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Derbinski J, Pinto S, Rösch S, Hexel K, Kyewski B. Promiscuous gene expression patterns in single medullary thymic epithelial cells argue for a stochastic mechanism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008; 105:657-62. [PMID: 18180458 PMCID: PMC2206592 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707486105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 145] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2007] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Promiscuous expression of tissue-restricted autoantigens in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) imposes central T cell tolerance. The molecular regulation of this unusual gene expression is not understood, in particular its delineation from cell lineage-specific gene expression control remains unclear. Here, we compared the expression profile of the casein gene locus in mTECs and mammary gland epithelial cells by single cell PCR. Mammary gland cells showed highly correlated intra- and interchromosomal coexpression of milk proteins (the casein genes, lactalbumin-alpha and whey acidic protein) and one of its transcriptional regulators (Elf5). In contrast, coexpression of these genes in mature CD80(hi) mTECs was rarely observed and no pattern of gene expression in individual mTECs was discernible. The apparent stochastic expression pattern of genes within the casein locus, the lower mRNA levels compared with mammary gland cells in conjunction with frequent coexpression of insulin in single mTECs clearly delineates the molecular mechanism(s) of promiscuous gene expression from cell lineage-specific gene control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jens Derbinski
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sheena Pinto
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Stefanie Rösch
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Klaus Hexel
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Bruno Kyewski
- Division of Developmental Immunology, Tumor Immunology Program, German Cancer Research Center, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
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