Macrophage dysfunction initiates colitis during weaning of infant mice lacking the interleukin-10 receptor

  1. Naresh S Redhu
  2. Vasudevan Bakthavatchalu
  3. Evan A Conaway
  4. Dror S Shoval
  5. Amy M Tsou
  6. Jeremy A Goettel
  7. Amlan Biswas
  8. Chuanwu Wang
  9. Michael Field
  10. Werner Muller
  11. Andre Bleich
  12. Ning Li
  13. Georg K Gerber
  14. Lynn Bry
  15. James G Fox
  16. Scott B Snapper  Is a corresponding author
  17. Bruce H Horwitz  Is a corresponding author
  1. Boston Children's Hospital, United States
  2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
  3. Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States
  4. University of Manchester, United Kingdom
  5. Hannover Medical School, Germany
  6. Harvard Medical School, United States

Abstract

Infants with defects in the interleukin 10 receptor (IL10R) develop very early onset inflammatory bowel disease. Whether IL10R regulates lamina propria macrophage function during infant development in mice and whether macrophage-intrinsic IL10R signaling is required to prevent colitis in infancy is unknown. Here we show that although signs of colitis are absent in IL10R-deficient mice during the first 2 weeks of life, intestinal inflammation and macrophage dysfunction begin during the 3rd week of life, concomitant with weaning and accompanying diversification of the intestinal microbiota. However, IL10R did not directly regulate the microbial ecology during infant development. Interestingly, macrophage depletion with clodronate inhibited the development of colitis, while the absence of IL10R specifically on macrophages sensitized infant mice to the development of colitis. These results indicate that IL10R-mediated regulation of macrophage function during the early postnatal period is indispensable for preventing the development of murine colitis.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Naresh S Redhu

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Vasudevan Bakthavatchalu

    Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Evan A Conaway

    Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Dror S Shoval

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Amy M Tsou

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Jeremy A Goettel

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Amlan Biswas

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4299-1001
  8. Chuanwu Wang

    Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Michael Field

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  10. Werner Muller

    Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  11. Andre Bleich

    Institute for Laboratory Animal Science and Central Animal Facility, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  12. Ning Li

    Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  13. Georg K Gerber

    Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9149-5509
  14. Lynn Bry

    Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  15. James G Fox

    Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  16. Scott B Snapper

    Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    Scott.Snapper@childrens.harvard.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  17. Bruce H Horwitz

    Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
    For correspondence
    bhorwitz@partners.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8123-8728

Funding

Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (RFA381023)

  • Naresh S Redhu

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (201411MFE-339308-254788)

  • Naresh S Redhu

National Institutes of Health (T32-OD010978-26)

  • James G Fox

Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust

  • Scott B Snapper

Wolpow Family Chair in IBD Research and Treatment

  • Scott B Snapper

National Institutes of Health (R01-OD011141)

  • James G Fox

National Institutes of Health (P30-ES002109)

  • James G Fox

National Institutes of Health (R01-AI00114)

  • Bruce H Horwitz

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All experiments were conducted following approval from the Animal Resources at Children's Hospital, per regulations of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC assurance number A3303-01).

Copyright

© 2017, Redhu et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,016
    views
  • 515
    downloads
  • 31
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Naresh S Redhu
  2. Vasudevan Bakthavatchalu
  3. Evan A Conaway
  4. Dror S Shoval
  5. Amy M Tsou
  6. Jeremy A Goettel
  7. Amlan Biswas
  8. Chuanwu Wang
  9. Michael Field
  10. Werner Muller
  11. Andre Bleich
  12. Ning Li
  13. Georg K Gerber
  14. Lynn Bry
  15. James G Fox
  16. Scott B Snapper
  17. Bruce H Horwitz
(2017)
Macrophage dysfunction initiates colitis during weaning of infant mice lacking the interleukin-10 receptor
eLife 6:e27652.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27652

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27652

Further reading

    1. Immunology and Inflammation
    Josep Garnica, Patricia Sole ... Pere Santamaria
    Research Article

    Chronic antigenic stimulation can trigger the formation of interleukin 10 (IL-10)-producing T-regulatory type 1 (TR1) cells in vivo. We have recently shown that murine T-follicular helper (TFH) cells are precursors of TR1 cells and that the TFH-to-TR1 cell transdifferentiation process is characterized by the progressive loss and acquisition of opposing transcription factor gene expression programs that evolve through at least one transitional cell stage. Here, we use a broad range of bulk and single-cell transcriptional and epigenetic tools to investigate the epigenetic underpinnings of this process. At the single-cell level, the TFH-to-TR1 cell transition is accompanied by both, downregulation of TFH cell-specific gene expression due to loss of chromatin accessibility, and upregulation of TR1 cell-specific genes linked to chromatin regions that remain accessible throughout the transdifferentiation process, with minimal generation of new open chromatin regions. By interrogating the epigenetic status of accessible TR1 genes on purified TFH and conventional T-cells, we find that most of these genes, including Il10, are already poised for expression at the TFH cell stage. Whereas these genes are closed and hypermethylated in Tconv cells, they are accessible, hypomethylated, and enriched for H3K27ac-marked and hypomethylated active enhancers in TFH cells. These enhancers are enriched for binding sites for the TFH and TR1-associated transcription factors TOX-2, IRF4, and c-MAF. Together, these data suggest that the TR1 gene expression program is genetically imprinted at the TFH cell stage.

    1. Genetics and Genomics
    2. Immunology and Inflammation
    Stephanie Guillet, Tomi Lazarov ... Frédéric Geissmann
    Research Article

    Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, the pathophysiology and genetic basis of which are incompletely understood. Using a forward genetic screen in multiplex families with SLE, we identified an association between SLE and compound heterozygous deleterious variants in the non-receptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) ACK1 and BRK. Experimental blockade of ACK1 or BRK increased circulating autoantibodies in vivo in mice and exacerbated glomerular IgG deposits in an SLE mouse model. Mechanistically, NRTKs regulate activation, migration, and proliferation of immune cells. We found that the patients’ ACK1 and BRK variants impair efferocytosis, the MERTK-mediated anti-inflammatory response to apoptotic cells, in human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived macrophages, which may contribute to SLE pathogenesis. Overall, our data suggest that ACK1 and BRK deficiencies are associated with human SLE and impair efferocytosis in macrophages.