Adenosine produced from adenine nucleotides through an interaction between apoptotic cells and engulfing macrophages contributes to the appearance of transglutaminase 2 in dying thymocytes

Heme Oxygenase-1 Contributes to Both the Engulfment and the Anti-Inflammatory Program of Macrophages during Efferocytosis

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) plays a vital role in the catabolism of heme and yields equimolar amounts of biliverdin, carbon monoxide, and free iron. We report that macrophages engulfing either the low amount of heme-containing apoptotic thymocytes or the high amount of heme-containing eryptotic red blood cells (eRBCs) strongly upregulate HO-1. The induction by apoptotic thymocytes is dependent on soluble signals, which do not include adenylate cyclase activators but induce the p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway, while in the case of eRBCs, it is cell uptake-dependent. Both pathways might involve the regulation of BTB and CNC homology 1 (BACH1), which is the repressor transcription regulator factor of the HO-1 gene. Long-term continuous efferocytosis of apoptotic thymocytes is not affected by the loss of HO-1, but that of eRBCs is inhibited. This latter is related to an internal signaling pathway that prevents the efferocytosis-induced increase in Rac1 activity. While the uptake of apoptotic cells suppressed the basal pro-inflammatory cytokine production in wild-type macrophages, in the absence of HO-1, engulfing macrophages produced enhanced amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Our data demonstrate that HO-1 is required for both the engulfment and the anti-inflammatory response parts of the efferocytosis program.

Adenosine in the Thymus

Adenosine is an ancient extracellular signaling molecule that regulates various biological functions via activating four G-protein-coupled receptors, A₁, A_2A, A_2B, and A₃ adenosine receptors. As such, several studies have highlighted a role for adenosine signaling in affecting the T cell development in the thymus. Recent studies indicate that adenosine is produced in the context of apoptotic thymocyte clearance. This review critically discusses the involvement of adenosine and its receptors in the complex interplay that exists between the developing thymocytes and the thymic macrophages which engulf the apoptotic cells. This crosstalk contributes to the effective and immunologically silent removal of apoptotic thymocytes, as well as affects the TCR-driven T-cell selection processes.

Anti-inflammatory Mechanisms Triggered by Apoptotic Cells during Their Clearance

In the human body, billions of cells die by apoptosis every day. The subsequent clearance of apoptotic cells by phagocytosis is normally efficient enough to prevent secondary necrosis and the consequent release of cell contents that would induce inflammation and trigger autoimmunity. In addition, apoptotic cells generally induce an anti-inflammatory response, thus removal of apoptotic cells is usually immunologically silent. Since the first discovery that uptake of apoptotic cells leads to transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and interleukin (IL)-10 release by engulfing macrophages, numerous anti-inflammatory mechanisms triggered by apoptotic cells have been discovered, including release of anti-inflammatory molecules from the apoptotic cells, triggering immediate anti-inflammatory signaling pathways by apoptotic cell surface molecules via phagocyte receptors, activating phagocyte nuclear receptors following uptake and inducing the production of anti-inflammatory soluble mediators by phagocytes that may act via paracrine or autocrine mechanisms to amplify and preserve the anti-inflammatory state. Here, we summarize our present knowledge about how these anti-inflammatory mechanisms operate during the clearance of apoptotic cells.

Transcriptional control of transglutaminase 2 expression in mouse apoptotic thymocytes

Transglutaminase 2 (TGM2) is a ubiquitously expressed multifunctional protein, which participates in various biological processes including thymocyte apoptosis. As a result, the transcriptional regulation of the gene is complex and must depend on the cell type. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that in dying thymocytes the expression of Tgm2 is induced by external signals derived from engulfing macrophages, such as retinoids, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and adenosine, the latter triggering the adenylate cyclase signaling pathway. The existence of TGF-β and retinoid responsive elements in the promoter region of Tgm2 has already been reported, but the intergenic regulatory elements participating in the regulation of Tgm2 have not yet been identified. Here we used publicly available results from DNase I hypersensitivity analysis followed by deep sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing against CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF), H3K4me3, H3K4me1 and H3K27ac to map a putative regulatory element set for Tgm2 in thymocytes. By measuring eRNA expressions of these putative enhancers in retinoid, rTGF-β or dibutiryl cAMP-exposed thymocytes we determined which of them are functional. By applying ChIP-qPCR against SMAD4, retinoic acid receptor, retinoid X receptor, cAMP response element binding protein, P300 and H3K27ac under the same conditions, we identified two enhancers of Tgm2, which seem to act as integrators of the TGF-β, retinoid and adenylate cyclase signaling pathways in dying thymocytes. Our study describes a novel strategy to identify and characterize the signal-specific functional enhancer set of a gene by integrating genome-wide datasets and measuring the production of enhancer specific RNA molecules.