Journal
JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY
Volume 191, Issue 10, Pages 5182-5195Publisher
AMER ASSOC IMMUNOLOGISTS
DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1201819
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SFB415-C7, EXC306]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The Wnt signaling network, an ancient signaling system governing ontogeny and homeostatic processes, has recently been identified to exert immunoregulatory functions in a variety of inflammatory and infectious disease settings including tuberculosis. In this study, we show that Wnt6 is expressed in granulomatous lesions in the lung of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected mice. We identified foamy macrophage-like cells as the primary source of Wnt6 in the infected lung and uncovered a TLR-MyD88-NF-kappa B-dependent mode of induction in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Analysis of Wnt6-induced signal transduction revealed a pertussis toxin-sensitive, ERK-mediated, but beta-catenin-independent induction of c-Myc, a master regulator of cell proliferation. Increased Ki-67 mRNA expression levels and enhanced thymidine incorporation in Wnt6-treated macrophage cultures demonstrate a proliferation-promoting effect on murine macrophages. Further functional studies in M. tuberculosis-infected macrophages using Wnt6 conditioned medium and Wnt6-deficient macrophages uncovered a Wnt6-dependent induction of macrophage Arginase-1 and downregulation of TNF-alpha. This identifies Wnt6 as a novel factor driving macrophage polarization toward an M2-like phenotype. Taken together, these findings point to an unexpected role for Wnt6 in macrophage differentiation in the M. tuberculosis-infected lung.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available