技术资料

B cell dysregulation in aging is thought to mostly occur in conventional B2 cells without affecting innate B1 cells. Elderly humans and mice also accumulate 4-1BBL(+)MHC class-I(Hi)CD86(Hi)B cells of unknown origin. In this article,we report that these cells,termed 4BL cells,are activated murine and possibly human B1a cells. The activation is mediated by aging human monocytes and murine peritoneal macrophages. They induce expression and activation of 4-1BBL and IFN-γR1 on B1a cells to subsequently upregulate membrane TNF-α and CD86. As a result,activated B1a/4BL cells induce expression of granzyme B in CD8(+)T cells by targeting TNFR2 via membrane TNF-α and providing costimulation with CD86. Thus,for the first time,to our knowledge,these results indicate that aging affects the function of B1a cells. Upon aging,these cells lose their tumor-supporting activity and become inducers of potentially antitumor and autoimmune CD8(+)T cells. View Publication

Cell replacement therapy with human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons has the potential to ameliorate neurodegenerative dysfunction and central nervous system injuries,but reprogrammed neurons are dissociated and spatially disorganized during transplantation,rendering poor cell survival,functionality and engraftment in vivo. Here,we present the design of three-dimensional (3D) microtopographic scaffolds,using tunable electrospun microfibrous polymeric substrates that promote in situ stem cell neuronal reprogramming,neural network establishment and support neuronal engraftment into the brain. Scaffold-supported,reprogrammed neuronal networks were successfully grafted into organotypic hippocampal brain slices,showing an ∼3.5-fold improvement in neurite outgrowth and increased action potential firing relative to injected isolated cells. Transplantation of scaffold-supported neuronal networks into mouse brain striatum improved survival ∼38-fold at the injection site relative to injected isolated cells,and allowed delivery of multiple neuronal subtypes. Thus,3D microscale biomaterials represent a promising platform for the transplantation of therapeutic human neurons with broad neuro-regenerative relevance. View Publication

Alterations in DNA damage response and repair have been observed in Huntington's disease (HD). We generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from primary dermal fibroblasts of 5 patients with HD and 5 control subjects. A significant fraction of the HD iPSC lines had genomic abnormalities as assessed by karyotype analysis,while none of our control lines had detectable genomic abnormalities. We demonstrate a statistically significant increase in genomic instability in HD cells during reprogramming. We also report a significant association with repeat length and severity of this instability. Our karyotypically normal HD iPSCs also have elevated ATM-p53 signaling as shown by elevated levels of phosphorylated p53 and H2AX,indicating either elevated DNA damage or hypersensitive DNA damage signaling in HD iPSCs. Thus,increased DNA damage responses in the HD genotype is coincidental with the observed chromosomal aberrations. We conclude that the disease causing mutation in HD increases the propensity of chromosomal instability relative to control fibroblasts specifically during reprogramming to a pluripotent state by a commonly used episomal-based method that includes p53 knockdown. View Publication

CD8(+) T cells have a central role in antitumour immunity,but their activity is suppressed in the tumour microenvironment. Reactivating the cytotoxicity of CD8(+) T cells is of great clinical interest in cancer immunotherapy. Here we report a new mechanism by which the antitumour response of mouse CD8(+) T cells can be potentiated by modulating cholesterol metabolism. Inhibiting cholesterol esterification in T cells by genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of ACAT1,a key cholesterol esterification enzyme,led to potentiated effector function and enhanced proliferation of CD8(+) but not CD4(+) T cells. This is due to the increase in the plasma membrane cholesterol level of CD8(+) T cells,which causes enhanced T-cell receptor clustering and signalling as well as more efficient formation of the immunological synapse. ACAT1-deficient CD8(+) T cells were better than wild-type CD8(+) T cells at controlling melanoma growth and metastasis in mice. We used the ACAT inhibitor avasimibe,which was previously tested in clinical trials for treating atherosclerosis and showed a good human safety profile,to treat melanoma in mice and observed a good antitumour effect. A combined therapy of avasimibe plus an anti-PD-1 antibody showed better efficacy than monotherapies in controlling tumour progression. ACAT1,an established target for atherosclerosis,is therefore also a potential target for cancer immunotherapy. View Publication

Diploidy is a fundamental genetic feature in mammals,in which haploid cells normally arise only as post-meiotic germ cells that serve to ensure a diploid genome upon fertilization. Gamete manipulation has yielded haploid embryonic stem (ES) cells from several mammalian species,but haploid human ES cells have yet to be reported. Here we generated and analysed a collection of human parthenogenetic ES cell lines originating from haploid oocytes,leading to the successful isolation and maintenance of human ES cell lines with a normal haploid karyotype. Haploid human ES cells exhibited typical pluripotent stem cell characteristics,such as self-renewal capacity and a pluripotency-specific molecular signature. Moreover,we demonstrated the utility of these cells as a platform for loss-of-function genetic screening. Although haploid human ES cells resembled their diploid counterparts,they also displayed distinct properties including differential regulation of X chromosome inactivation and of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation,alongside reduction in absolute gene expression levels and cell size. Surprisingly,we found that a haploid human genome is compatible not only with the undifferentiated pluripotent state,but also with differentiated somatic fates representing all three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in vivo,despite a persistent dosage imbalance between the autosomes and X chromosome. We expect that haploid human ES cells will provide novel means for studying human functional genomics and development. View Publication

The advent of super-resolution imaging (SRI) has created a need for optimized labelling strategies. We present a new method relying on fluorophore-conjugated monomeric streptavidin (mSA) to label membrane proteins carrying a short,enzymatically biotinylated tag,compatible with SRI techniques including uPAINT,STED and dSTORM. We demonstrate efficient and specific labelling of target proteins in confined intercellular and organotypic tissues,with reduced steric hindrance and no crosslinking compared with multivalent probes. We use mSA to decipher the dynamics and nanoscale organization of the synaptic adhesion molecules neurexin-1β,neuroligin-1 (Nlg1) and leucine-rich-repeat transmembrane protein 2 (LRRTM2) in a dual-colour configuration with GFP nanobody,and show that these proteins are diffusionally trapped at synapses where they form apposed trans-synaptic adhesive structures. Furthermore,Nlg1 is dynamic,disperse and sensitive to synaptic stimulation,whereas LRRTM2 is organized in compact and stable nanodomains. Thus,mSA is a versatile tool to image membrane proteins at high resolution in complex live environments,providing novel information about the nano-organization of biological structures. View Publication

Freshly isolated human adult hepatocytes are considered to be the gold standard tool for in vitro studies. However,primary hepatocyte scarcity,cell cycle arrest and the rapid loss of cell phenotype limit their widespread deployment. Human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells provide renewable sources of hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs). Despite the use of various differentiation methodologies,HLCs like primary human hepatocytes exhibit unstable phenotype in culture. It has been shown that the functional capacity can be improved by adding back elements of human physiology,such as cell co-culture or through the use of natural and/or synthetic surfaces. In this study,the effect of fluid shear stress on HLC performance was investigated. We studied two important liver functions,cytochrome P450 drug metabolism and serum protein secretion,in static cultures and those exposed to fluid shear stress. Our study demonstrates that fluid shear stress improved Cyp1A2 activity by approximately fivefold. This was paralleled by an approximate ninefold increase in sensitivity to a drug,primarily metabolised by Cyp2D6. In addition to metabolic capacity,fluid shear stress also improved hepatocyte phenotype with an approximate fourfold reduction in the secretion of a foetal marker,alpha-fetoprotein. We believe these studies highlight the importance of introducing physiologic cues in cell-based models to improve somatic cell phenotype. View Publication

HIV-infected slow progressors (SP) represent a heterogeneous group of subjects who spontaneously control HIV infection without treatment for several years while showing moderate signs of disease progression. Under conditions that remain poorly understood,a subgroup of these subjects experience failure of spontaneous immunological and virological control. Here we determined the frequency of SP subjects who showed loss of HIV control within our Canadian Cohort of HIV(+) Slow Progressors and identified the proinflammatory cytokine IL-32 as a robust biomarker for control failure. Plasmatic levels of the proinflammatory isoforms of IL-32 (mainly β and γ) at earlier clinic visits positively correlated with the decline of CD4 T-cell counts,increased viral load,lower CD4/CD8 ratio and levels of inflammatory markers (sCD14 and IL-6) at later clinic visits. We present here a proof-of-concept for the use of IL-32 as a predictive biomarker for disease progression in SP subjects and identify IL-32 as a potential therapeutic target. View Publication

Transplantation of ex vivo expanded corneal limbal stem cells (LSCs) has been the main treatment for limbal stem cell deficiency,although the shortage of donor corneal tissues remains a major concern for its wide application. Due to the development of tissue engineering,embryonic stem cells (ESCs)-derived corneal epithelial-like cells (ESC-CECs) become a new direction for this issue. However,the immunogenicity of ESC-CECs is a critical matter to be solved. In the present study,we explored the immunological properties of ESC-CECs,which were differentiated from ESCs. The results showed that ESC-CECs had a similar character and function with LSCs both in vitro and in vivo. In ESC-CECs,a large number of genes related with immune response were down-regulated. The expressions of MHC-I,MHC-II,and co-stimulatory molecules were low,but the expression of HLA-G was high. The ESC-CECs were less responsible for T cell proliferation and NK cell lysis in vitro,and there was less immune cell infiltration after transplantation in vivo compared with LSCs. Moreover,the immunological properties were not affected by interferon-$$. All these results indicated a low immunogenicity of ESC-CECs,and they can be promising in clinical use. View Publication

Leukocyte recruitment to inflammation sites progresses in a multistep cascade. Chemokines regulate multiple steps of the cascade,including arrest,transmigration,and chemotaxis. The most important chemokine receptor in mouse neutrophils is CXCR2,which couples through G$\alpha$i2- and G$\alpha$i3-containing heterotrimeric G proteins. Neutrophils arrest in response to CXCR2 stimulation. This is defective in G$\alpha$i2-deficient neutrophils. In this study,we show that G$\alpha$i3-deficient neutrophils showed reduced transmigration but normal arrest in mice. We also tested G$\alpha$i2- or G$\alpha$i3-deficient neutrophils in a CXCL1 gradient generated by a microfluidic device. G$\alpha$i3-,but not G$\alpha$i2-,deficient neutrophils showed significantly reduced migration and directionality. This was confirmed in a model of sterile inflammation in vivo. G$\alpha$i2-,but not G$\alpha$i3-,deficient neutrophils showed decreased Ca(2+) flux in response to CXCR2 stimulation. Conversely,G$\alpha$i3-,but not G$\alpha$i2-,deficient neutrophils exhibited reduced AKT phosphorylation upon CXCR2 stimulation. We conclude that G$\alpha$i2 controls arrest and G$\alpha$i3 controls transmigration and chemotaxis in response to chemokine stimulation of neutrophils. View Publication

Immune tolerance is executed partly by Foxp3(+)regulatory T (Treg) cells,which suppress autoreactive T cells. In autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D) impaired tolerance promotes destruction of insulin-producing β-cells. The development of autoantigen-specific vaccination strategies for Foxp3(+)Treg-induction and prevention of islet autoimmunity in patients is still in its infancy. Here,using human haematopoietic stem cell-engrafted NSG-HLA-DQ8 transgenic mice,we provide direct evidence for human autoantigen-specific Foxp3(+)Treg-induction in vivo. We identify HLA-DQ8-restricted insulin-specific CD4(+)T cells and demonstrate efficient human insulin-specific Foxp3(+)Treg-induction upon subimmunogenic vaccination with strong agonistic insulin mimetopes in vivo. Induced human Tregs are stable,show increased expression of Treg signature genes such as Foxp3,CTLA4,IL-2Rα and TIGIT and can efficiently suppress effector T cells. Such Foxp3(+)Treg-induction does not trigger any effector T cells. These T1D vaccine candidates could therefore represent an expedient improvement in the challenge to induce human Foxp3(+)Tregs and to develop novel precision medicines for prevention of islet autoimmunity in children at risk of T1D. View Publication

Colon carcinogenesis is a multiple-step process involving the accumulation of a series of genetic and epigenetic alterations. The most commonly initiating event of intestinal carcinogenesis is mutation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene,which leads to activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Olfactomedin 4 (OLFM4) has emerged as an intestinal stem-cell marker,but its biological function in the intestine remains to be determined. Here we show that Olfm4 deletion induced colon adenocarcinoma in the distal colon of Apc(Min/+) mice. Mechanistically,we found that OLFM4 is a target gene of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and can downregulate β-catenin signaling by competing with Wnt ligands for binding to Frizzled receptors,as well as by inhibition of the Akt-GSK-3β (Akt-glycogen synthase kinase-3β) pathway. We have shown that both Wnt and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling were boosted in tumor tissues of Apc Olfm4 double-mutant mice. These data establish OLFM4 as a critical negative regulator of the Wnt/β-catenin and NF-κB pathways that inhibits colon-cancer development initiated by APC mutation. In addition,Olfm4 deletion significantly enhanced intestinal-crypt proliferation and inflammation induced by azoxymethane/dextran sodium sulfate. Thus,OLFM4 has an important role in the regulation of intestinal inflammation and tumorigenesis,and could be a potential therapeutic target for intestinal malignant tumors. Unlike the human colonic epithelium,the mouse colonic epithelium does not express OLFM4,but nevertheless,systemic OLFM4 deletion promotes colon tumorigenesis and that loss from mucosal neutrophils may have a role to play. View Publication