Journal
NATURE
Volume 568, Issue 7752, Pages 405-+Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1082-x
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01AI143842, R01AI123368, R01AI145989, R21DK110262, U01AI095608]
- NIAID Mucosal Immunology Studies Team (MIST)
- Crohn's and Colitis Foundation [608975, 519428]
- Searle Scholars Program
- American Asthma Foundation Scholar Award
- Center for Advanced Digestive Care (CADC)
- Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund
- Wade F. B. Thompson/Cancer Research Institute CLIP Investigator grant
- Meyer Cancer Center Collaborative Research Initiative
- Jill Roberts Institute (JRI) for Research in IBD
- NIH [F32AI124517]
- JRI
- Rosanne H. Silbermann Foundation
- Weill Cornell Medicine Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition
- European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (TILC) [694502]
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Equipe Labellisee 'La Ligue'
- Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer
- MSDAvenir
- Innate Pharma
- National Center for Advancing Translational Science of the National Institute of Health [UL1TR002384]
- Jill Roberts Center for IBD
- Cure for IBD
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Interleukin (IL)-2 is a pleiotropic cytokine that is necessary to prevent chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract(1-4). The protective effects of IL-2 involve the generation, maintenance and function of regulatory T (Treg) cells(4-8), and the use of low doses of IL-2 has emerged as a potential therapeutic strategy for patients with inflammatory bowel disease(9). However, the cellular and molecular pathways that control the production of IL-2 in the context of intestinal health are undefined. Here we show, in a mouse model, that IL-2 is acutely required to maintain Treg cells and immunological homeostasis throughout the gastrointestinal tract. Notably, lineage-specific deletion of IL-2 in T cells did not reduce Treg cells in the small intestine. Unbiased analyses revealed that, in the small intestine, group-3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) are the dominant cellular source of IL-2, which is induced selectively by IL-1 beta. Macrophages in the small intestine produce IL-1 beta, and activation of this pathway involves MYD88-and NOD2-dependent sensing of the microbiota. Our loss-of-function studies show that ILC3-derived IL-2 is essential for maintaining Treg cells, immunological homeostasis and oral tolerance to dietary antigens in the small intestine. Furthermore, production of IL-2 by ILC3s was significantly reduced in the small intestine of patients with Crohn's disease, and this correlated with lower frequencies of Treg cells. Our results reveal a previously unappreciated pathway in which a microbiota-and IL-1 beta-dependent axis promotes the production of IL-2 by ILC3s to orchestrate immune regulation in the intestine.
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