Perivascular mast cells regulate vein graft neointimal formation and remodeling

Objective. Emerging evidence suggests an important role for mast cells in vein graft failure. This study addressed the hypothesis that perivascular mast cells regulate in situ vascular inflammatory and proliferative responses and subsequent vein graft neointimal lesion formation, using an optimized local mast cell reconstitution method. Methods and Results. Neointimal hyperplasia was induced by insertion of a vein graft into the right carotid artery in wild type and mast cell deficient KitW−sh/W−sh mice. In some experiments, mast cells were reconstituted systemically (tail vein injection of bone marrow-derived mast cells) or locally (directly into the right neck area) prior to vein grafting. Vein graft neointimal lesion formation was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced in KitW−sh/W−sh mice. Mast cell deficiency reduced the number of proliferating cells, and inhibited L-selectin, CCL2, M-CSF and MIP-3α expression in the vein grafts. Local but not systemic mast cell reconstitution restored a perivascular mast cell population that subsequently promoted neointimal formation in mast cell deficient mice. Conclusion. Our data demonstrate that perivascular mast cells play a key role in promoting neointima formation by inducing local acute inflammatory and proliferative responses. These results suggest that ex vivo intraoperative targeting of mast cells may have therapeutic potential for the prevention of pathological vein graft remodeling

T-bet is essential for Th1-mediated, but not Th17-mediated, CNS autoimmune disease

T cells that produce both IL-17 and IFN-γ, and co-express ROR-γt and T-bet, are often found at sites of autoimmune inflammation. However, it is unknown whether this co-expression of T-bet with ROR-γt is a prerequisite for immunopathology. We show here that T-bet is not required for the development of Th17-driven experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The disease was not impaired in T-bet(−/−) mice and was associated with low IFN-γ production and elevated IL-17 production among central nervous system (CNS) infiltrating CD4(+) T cells. T-bet(−/−) Th17 cells generated in the presence of IL-6/TGF-β/IL-1 and IL-23 produced GM-CSF and high levels of IL-17 and induced disease upon transfer to naïve mice. Unlike their WT counterparts, these T-bet(−/–) Th17 cells did not exhibit an IL-17→IFN-γ switch upon reencounter with antigen in the CNS, indicating that this functional change is not critical to disease development. In contrast, T-bet was absolutely required for the pathogenicity of myelin-responsive Th1 cells. T-bet-deficient Th1 cells failed to accumulate in the CNS upon transfer, despite being able to produce GM-CSF. Therefore, T-bet is essential for establishing Th1-mediated inflammation but is not required to drive IL-23-induced GM-CSF production, or Th17-mediated autoimmune inflammation

TLR-4 ligation of dendritic cells is sufficient to drive pathogenic T cell function in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) depends on the initial activation of CD4⁺ T cells responsive to myelin autoantigens. The key antigen presenting cell (APC) population that drives the activation of naïve T cells most efficiently is the dendritic cell (DC). As such, we should be able to trigger EAE by transfer of DC that can present the relevant autoantigen(s). Despite some sporadic reports, however, models of DC-driven EAE have not been widely adopted. We sought to test the feasibility of this approach and whether activation of the DC by toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 ligation was a sufficient stimulus to drive EAE.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Host mice were seeded with myelin basic protein (MBP)-reactive CD4+ T cells and then were injected with DC that could present the relevant MBP peptide which had been exposed to lipopolysaccharide as a TLR-4 agonist. We found that this approach induced robust clinical signs of EAE.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>DC are sufficient as APC to effectively drive the differentiation of naïve myelin-responsive T cells into autoaggressive effector T cells. TLR-4-stimulation can activate the DC sufficiently to deliver the signals required to drive the pathogenic function of the T cell. These models will allow the dissection of the molecular requirements of the initial DC-T cell interaction in the lymphoid organs that ultimately leads to autoimmune pathology in the central nervous system.</p

Investigating the role of T-bet in CD4+ T cell driven central nervous system autoimmunity

Self-reactive CD4+ helper T cells (Th) are key causal agents in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a CD4+T cell model of the demyelinating autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS). It has been shown that EAE is caused by CD4+ T-cells that produce pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ (Th1) and IL-17 (Th17). As such, understanding how these Th cells are generated and controlled is essential. There is debate as to whether Th1 and Th17 cells act independently in EAE or if there is plasticity between these two subtypes, and whether the capacity to switch from Th1 to Th17 confers pathogenic capacity. T-bet was first described as the master transcription factor for Th1 cells, and is thought to have a critical role in EAE even though IFN-γ, the Th1 archetypal cytokine, has been shown to be redundant. More recent work has shown that T-bet is expressed in multiple immune cell types, and it remains unclear in what cells the expression of T-bet is required for EAE. Considerable efforts have been put into understanding the role of T-bet in EAE pathogenesis, with a view to modulate cells expressing T-bet for therapy. The hypothesis of this work was that T-bet has multifaceted roles in EAE, in initiating and directing an immune response in innate antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells (DC) as well as programming pathogenic effector CD4+ T cell (Teff) response to antigen. T-bet-/- mice were studied using different models of EAE to dissect the role of T-bet in disease pathogenesis. Active immunisation of C57BL/6 mice with the immunodominant peptide from myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG35-55) showed that T-bet-/- mice developed EAE with an IL-17 dominated profile and critically, T-bet-/- mice were able to produce GM-CSF which has recently been described as a key cytokine for EAE. T-bet-/- cells were not able to transfer EAE in a model of passive transfer EAE, where CD4+ T cells were polarised towards a Th1 profile in vitro. Illustrating that T-bet is required in CD4+ T cells for Th1 mediated EAE. DC driven EAE showed that T-bet-/- DC were able to activate CD4+ T cells in vitro and cause EAE upon co-transfer into host mice with transgenic CD4+ T cells. Thus, it has been shown that T-bet is not required in EAE. This work represents a step further towards understanding the disease mechanisms involved in EAE and suggests T-bet is not an appropriate therapeutic target for the treatment of MS

JOURNAL OF NEUROINFLAMMATION

TLR-4 ligation of dendritic cells is sufficient to drive pathogenic T cell function in experimental autoimmune encephalomyeliti