Derek W. Cain

The Peritoneal Cavity Provides a Protective Niche for B1 and Conventional B Lymphocytes during Anti-CD20 Immunotherapy in Mice

Although anti-CD20 immunotherapy effectively treats human lymphoma and autoimmune disease, the in vivo effect of immunotherapy on tissue B cells and their subsets is generally unknown. To address this, anti-mouse CD20 mAbs were used in a mouse model in which the extent and kinetics of tissue B cell depletion could be assessed in vivo. CD20 mAb treatment depleted most mature B cells within 2 days, with 95–98% of B cells in the bone marrow, blood, spleen, lymph nodes, and gut-associated lymphoid tissues depleted by day 7, including marginal zone and follicular B cells. The few spleen B cells remaining after CD20 mAb treatment included pre-B, immature, transitional, and some B1 B cells that expressed CD20 at low levels. By contrast, peritoneal cavity B cells expressed normal CD20 densities and were coated with CD20 mAb, but only 30–43% of B1 cells and 43–78% of B2 cells were depleted by day 7. Spleen B cells adoptively transferred into the peritoneal cavity were similarly resistant to mAb-induced depletion, while transferred B cells that had migrated to the spleen were depleted. However, peritoneal B1 and B2 cells were effectively depleted in mAb-treated wild-type and C3-deficient mice by thioglycolate-induced monocyte migration into this otherwise privileged niche. Inflammation-elicited effector cells did not promote peritoneal cavity B cell depletion in FcR-deficient mice treated with CD20 mAb. Thus, the majority of CD20+ cells and B cell subsets within lymphoid tissues and the peritoneum could be depleted efficiently in vivo through Fc-dependent, but C-independent pathways during anti-CD20 immunotherapy.

Identification of autoantigens recognized by the 2F5 and 4E10 broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies

Immunological tolerance to self-antigen impairs humoral responses to HIV-1.

IL-1R Type I-Dependent Hemopoietic Stem Cell Proliferation Is Necessary for Inflammatory Granulopoiesis and Reactive Neutrophilia

Infections and inflammation trigger neutrophilias that are supported by a hematopoietic program of accelerated granulopoiesis known as emergency granulopoiesis. The intrinsic factors that drive reactive neutrophilias and emergency granulopoiesis have been inferred but not demonstrated. Here, we show that alum cannot elicit reactive neutrophilias in IL-1R type I (IL-1RI)−/− mice, whereas other inflammatory responses, including eosinophilia and Ab production, remain intact. Analysis of this specific impairment revealed an unanticipated role for IL-1RI in supporting increased proliferation by granulocyte/macrophage progenitors and, surprisingly, multipotent progenitors and hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Indeed, HSC and multipotent progenitor proliferative responses were most suppressed in IL-1RI−/− mice, suggesting a critical role for their proliferation in inflammatory granulopoiesis. Whereas IL-1 drives increased HSC proliferation directly in vitro, IL-1RI expression by radiation-resistant host cells was both necessary and sufficient for alum-induced HSC, multipotent progenitor, and granulocyte/macrophage progenitor proliferation and reactive neutrophilias in radiation chimeric mice. Thus, IL-1 plays a necessary, but indirect, role in the support of alum-induced neutrophilias by expanding both pluripotent and myeloid progenitor compartments to accelerate granulopoiesis.

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase mediates central tolerance in B cells

The Aicda gene product, activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), initiates somatic hypermutation, class-switch recombination, and gene conversion of Ig genes by the deamination of deoxycytidine, followed by error-prone mismatch- or base-excision DNA repair. These processes are crucial for the generation of genetically diverse, high affinity antibody and robust humoral immunity, but exact significant genetic damage and promote cell death. In mice, physiologically significant AID expression was thought to be restricted to antigen-activated, mature B cells in germinal centers. We now demonstrate that low levels of AID in bone marrow immature and transitional B cells suppress the development of autoreactivity. Aicda−/− mice exhibit significantly increased serum autoantibody and reduced capacity to purge autoreactive immature and transitional B cells. In vitro, AID deficient immature/transitional B cells are significantly more resistant to anti-IgM–induced apoptosis than their normal counterparts. Thus, early AID expression plays a fundamental and unanticipated role in purging self-reactive immature and transitional B cells during their maturation in the bone marrow.

Identification of a Tissue-Specific, C/EBPβ-Dependent Pathway of Differentiation for Murine Peritoneal Macrophages

Macrophages and dendritic cells (DC) are distributed throughout the body and play important roles in pathogen detection and tissue homeostasis. In tissues, resident macrophages exhibit distinct phenotypes and activities, yet the transcriptional pathways that specify tissue-specific macrophages are largely unknown. We investigated the functions and origins of two peritoneal macrophage populations in mice: small and large peritoneal macrophages (SPM and LPM, respectively). SPM and LPM differ in their ability to phagocytose apoptotic cells, as well as in the production of cytokines in response to LPS. In steady-state conditions, SPM are sustained by circulating precursors, whereas LPM are maintained independently of hematopoiesis; however, both populations are replenished by bone marrow precursors following radiation injury. Transcription factor analysis revealed that SPM and LPM express abundant CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP)-β. Cebpb−/− mice exhibit elevated numbers of SPM-like cells but lack functional LPM. Alveolar macrophages are also missing in Cebpb−/− mice, although macrophage populations in the spleen, kidney, skin, mesenteric lymph nodes, and liver are normal. Adoptive transfer of SPM into Cebpb−/− mice results in SPM differentiation into LPM, yet donor SPM do not generate LPM after transfer into C/EBPβ-sufficient mice, suggesting that endogenous LPM inhibit differentiation by SPM. We conclude that C/EBPβ plays an intrinsic, tissue-restricted role in the generation of resident macrophages.

Inflammation Triggers Emergency Granulopoiesis through a Density-Dependent Feedback Mechanism

Normally, neutrophil pools are maintained by homeostatic mechanisms that require the transcription factor C/EBPα. Inflammation, however, induces neutrophilia through a distinct pathway of “emergency” granulopoiesis that is dependent on C/EBPβ. Here, we show in mice that alum triggers emergency granulopoiesis through the IL-1RI-dependent induction of G-CSF. G-CSF/G-CSF-R neutralization impairs proliferative responses of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) to alum, but also abrogates the acute mobilization of BM neutrophils, raising the possibility that HSPC responses to inflammation are an indirect result of the exhaustion of BM neutrophil stores. The induction of neutropenia, via depletion with Gr-1 mAb or myeloid-specific ablation of Mcl-1, elicits G-CSF via an IL-1RI-independent pathway, stimulating granulopoietic responses indistinguishable from those induced by adjuvant. Notably, C/EBPβ, thought to be necessary for enhanced generative capacity of BM, is dispensable for increased proliferation of HSPC to alum or neutropenia, but plays a role in terminal neutrophil differentiation during granulopoietic recovery. We conclude that alum elicits a transient increase in G-CSF production via IL-1RI for the mobilization of BM neutrophils, but density-dependent feedback sustains G-CSF for accelerated granulopoiesis.

Specificity and sensitivity of glucocorticoid signaling in health and disease.

Endogenous glucocorticoids regulate a variety of physiologic processes and are crucial to the systemic stress response. Glucocorticoid receptors are expressed throughout the body, but there is considerable heterogeneity in glucocorticoid sensitivity and induced biological responses across tissues. The immunoregulatory properties of glucocorticoids are exploited in the clinic for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders as well as certain hematological malignancies, but adverse side effects hamper prolonged use. Fully understanding the molecular events that shape the physiologic effects of glucocorticoid treatment will provide insight into optimal glucocorticoid therapies, reliable assessment of glucocorticoid sensitivity in patients, and may advance the development of novel GR agonists that exert immunosuppressive effects while avoiding harmful side effects. In this review, we provide an overview of mechanisms that affect glucocorticoid specificity and sensitivity in health and disease, focusing on the distinct isoforms of the glucocorticoid receptor and their unique regulatory and functional properties.

Immunogenicity of membrane-bound HIV-1 gp41 membrane-proximal external region (MPER) segments is dominated by residue accessibility and modulated by stereochemistry.

Background: Despite analyses of broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 antibodies directed against the gp41 MPER segment, there exists a paucity of structural information on MPER immunogenicity. Results: Immunodominance of Trp-680 in the MPER arrayed on liposomes is modified by membrane anchoring. Conclusion: Immunogenicity is manipulatable through subtle structural modification. Significance: Learning about the structural basis of immunogenicity is critical for eliciting desired B cell antibody production through vaccination. Structural characterization of epitope-paratope pairs has contributed to the understanding of antigenicity. By contrast, few structural studies relate to immunogenicity, the process of antigen-induced immune responses in vivo. Using a lipid-arrayed membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of HIV-1 glycoprotein 41 as a model antigen, we investigated the influence of physicochemical properties on immunogenicity in relation to structural modifications of MPER/liposome vaccines. Anchoring the MPER to the membrane via an alkyl tail or transmembrane domain retained the MPER on liposomes in vivo, while preserving MPER secondary structure. However, structural modifications that affected MPER membrane orientation and antigenic residue accessibility strongly impacted induced antibody responses. The solvent-exposed MPER tryptophan residue (Trp-680) was immunodominant, focusing immune responses, despite sequence variability elsewhere. Nonetheless, immunogenicity could be readily manipulated using site-directed mutagenesis or structural constraints to modulate amino acid surface display. These studies provide fundamental insights for immunogen design aimed at targeting B cell antibody responses.

Germinal Center Hypoxia Potentiates Immunoglobulin Class Switch Recombination

Germinal centers (GCs) are anatomic sites where B cells undergo secondary diversification to produce high-affinity, class-switched Abs. We hypothesized that proliferating B cells in GCs create a hypoxic microenvironment that governs their further differentiation. Using molecular markers, we found GCs to be predominantly hypoxic. Compared to normoxia (21% O2), hypoxic culture conditions (1% O2) in vitro accelerated class switching and plasma cell formation and enhanced expression of GL-7 on B and CD4+ T cells. Reversal of GC hypoxia in vivo by breathing 60% O2 during immunization resulted in reduced frequencies of GC B cells, T follicular helper cells, and plasmacytes, as well as lower expression of ICOS on T follicular helper cells. Importantly, this reversal of GC hypoxia decreased Ag-specific serum IgG1 and reduced the frequency of IgG1+ B cells within the Ag-specific GC. Taken together, these observations reveal a critical role for hypoxia in GC B cell differentiation.

Surfactant Protein-A Inhibits Mycoplasma-Induced Dendritic Cell Maturation through Regulation of HMGB-1 Cytokine Activity

During pulmonary infections, a careful balance between activation of protective host defense mechanisms and potentially injurious inflammatory processes must be maintained. Surfactant protein A (SP-A) is an immune modulator that increases pathogen uptake and clearance by phagocytes while minimizing lung inflammation by limiting dendritic cell (DC) and T cell activation. Recent publications have shown that SP-A binds to and is bacteriostatic for Mycoplasma pneumoniae in vitro. In vivo, SP-A aids in maintenance of airway homeostasis during M. pneumoniae pulmonary infection by preventing an overzealous proinflammatory response mediated by TNF-α. Although SP-A was shown to inhibit maturation of DCs in vitro, the consequence of DC/SP-A interactions in vivo has not been elucidated. In this article, we show that the absence of SP-A during M. pneumoniae infection leads to increased numbers of mature DCs in the lung and draining lymph nodes during the acute phase of infection and, consequently, increased numbers of activated T and B cells during the course of infection. The findings that glycyrrhizin, a specific inhibitor of extracellular high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB-1) abrogated this effect and that SP-A inhibits HMGB-1 release from immune cells suggest that SP-A inhibits M. pneumoniae-induced DC maturation by regulating HMGB-1 cytokine activity.