1. Academic Validation
  2. Inflammation-induced inhibition of chaperone-mediated autophagy maintains the immunosuppressive function of murine mesenchymal stromal cells

Inflammation-induced inhibition of chaperone-mediated autophagy maintains the immunosuppressive function of murine mesenchymal stromal cells

  • Cell Mol Immunol. 2021 Jun;18(6):1476-1488. doi: 10.1038/s41423-019-0345-7.
Jie Zhang 1 Jiefang Huang 1 Yuting Gu 1 Mingxing Xue 1 Fengtao Qian 1 Bei Wang 1 Wanlin Yang 2 Hongshuang Yu 1 Qiwei Wang 3 Xin Guo 2 Xinyuan Ding 2 Jina Wang 4 Min Jin 5 Yanyun Zhang 6 7 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
  • 2 Pediatric Institute of Soochow University, Institutes for Translational Medicine, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
  • 3 Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
  • 4 Department of Urology and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Organ Transplantation, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. wang.jina@zs-hospital.sh.cn.
  • 5 CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. mjin@sibs.ac.cn.
  • 6 CAS Key Laboratory of Tissue Microenvironment and Tumor, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. yyzhang@sibs.ac.cn.
  • 7 Pediatric Institute of Soochow University, Institutes for Translational Medicine, Soochow University, Suzhou, China. yyzhang@sibs.ac.cn.
  • 8 Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. yyzhang@sibs.ac.cn.
Abstract

Macroautophagy has been implicated in modulating the therapeutic function of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). However, the biological function of chaperone-mediated Autophagy (CMA) in MSCs remains elusive. Here, we found that CMA was inhibited in MSCs in response to the proinflammatory cytokines interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). In addition, suppression of CMA by knocking down the CMA-related lysosomal receptor lysosomal-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP-2A) in MSCs significantly enhanced the immunosuppressive effect of MSCs on T cell proliferation, and as expected, LAMP-2A overexpression in MSCs exerted the opposite effect on T cell proliferation. This effect of CMA on the immunosuppressive function of MSCs was attributed to its negative regulation of the expression of chemokine C-X-C motif ligand 10 (CXCL10), which recruits inflammatory cells, especially T cells, to MSCs, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), which leads to the subsequent inhibition of T cell proliferation via nitric oxide (NO). Mechanistically, CMA inhibition dramatically promoted IFN-γ plus TNF-α-induced activation of NF-κB and STAT1, leading to the enhanced expression of CXCL10 and iNOS in MSCs. Furthermore, we found that IFN-γ plus TNF-α-induced Akt activation contributed to CMA inhibition in MSCs. More interestingly, CMA-deficient MSCs exhibited improved therapeutic efficacy in inflammatory liver injury. Taken together, our findings established CMA inhibition as a critical contributor to the immunosuppressive function of MSCs induced by inflammatory cytokines and highlighted a previously unknown function of CMA.

Keywords

chaperone-mediated autophagy; immunosuppressive capacity; inflammatory microenvironment; mesenchymal stromal cells.

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