| First Author | Dhar A | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 13867 |
| PubMed ID | 31554891 | Mgi Jnum | J:284665 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6389462 | Doi | 10.1038/s41598-019-50454-z |
| Citation | Dhar A, et al. (2019) Role of NF-kappaB2-p100 in regulatory T cell homeostasis and activation. Sci Rep 9(1):13867 |
| abstractText | The immunological roles of the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) pathway are mediated via the canonical components in immune responses and via non-canonical components in immune organogenesis and homeostasis, although the two components are capable of crosstalk. Regulatory CD4 T cells (Tregs) are homeostatically functional and represent an interesting potential meeting point of these two NF-kappaB components. We show that mice deficient in the non-canonical NF-kappaB component gene Nfkb2 (p100) had normal thymic development and suppressive function of Tregs. However, they had enhanced frequencies of peripheral 'effector-phenotype' Tregs (eTregs). In bi-parental chimeras of wild-type (WT) and Nfkb2-/- mice, the Nfkb2-/- genotype was over-represented in Tregs, with a further increase in the relative prominence of eTregs. Consistent with distinct properties of eTregs, the Nfkb2-/- genotype was more prominent in Tregs in extra-lymphoid tissues such as liver in the bi-parental chimeras. The Nfkb2-/- Tregs also displayed greater survival, activation and proliferation in vivo. These Nfkb2-/- Tregs showed higher nuclear NF-kappaB activity mainly comprising of RelB-containing dimers, in contrast to the prominence of cRel- and RelA-containing dimers in WT Tregs. Since p100 is an inhibitor of RelB activation as well as a participant as cleaved p52 in RelB nuclear activity, we tested bi-parental chimeras of WT and Relb-/- mice, and found normal frequencies of Relb-/- Tregs and eTregs in these chimeric mice. Our findings confirm and extend recent data, and indicate that p100 normally restrains RelB-mediated Treg activation, and in the absence of p100, p50-RelB dimers can contribute to Treg activation. |
