Journal
MUCOSAL IMMUNOLOGY
Volume 14, Issue 3, Pages 615-629Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1038/s41385-021-00381-y
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Funding
- ETH foundation
- Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD Fellowship
- Swiss National Science Foundation [310030_53074, 310030B_173338/1, 310030_192567]
- Promedica Foundation
- Monique Dornonville de la Cour Stiftung
- Swedish Research Council [2015-00635, 2018-02223]
- Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research [ICA16-0031]
- Lennart Philipson Award (MOLPS)
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [310030_192567, 310030B_173338] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
- Swedish Research Council [2015-00635, 2018-02223] Funding Source: Swedish Research Council
- Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) [ICA16-0031] Funding Source: Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF)
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The gut epithelium serves as a critical barrier against infection by Gram-negative bacteria, with the NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome playing a key role in sensing and responding to such infections. In NAIP/NLRC4-deficient mice, severe enteropathy and epithelial barrier breakdown were observed, while hosts with functional NAIP/NLRC4 were able to control bacterial loads through a heterogeneous enterocyte death response, preventing excessive inflammatory reactions. These findings highlight the importance of the NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome in maintaining gut homeostasis during bacterial infections.
The gut epithelium is a critical protective barrier. Its NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasome senses infection by Gram-negative bacteria, including Salmonella Typhimurium (S.Tm) and promotes expulsion of infected enterocytes. During the first -12-24 h, this reduces mucosal S.Tm loads at the price of moderate enteropathy. It remained unknown how this NAIP/NLRC4-dependent tradeoff would develop during subsequent infection stages. In NAIP/NLRC4-deficient mice, S.Tm elicited severe enteropathy within 72 h, characterized by elevated mucosal TNF (>20 pg/mg) production from bone marrow-derived cells, reduced regeneration, excessive enterocyte loss, and a collapse of the epithelial barrier. TNF-depleting antibodies prevented this destructive pathology. In hosts proficient for epithelial NAIP/NLRC4, a heterogeneous enterocyte death response with both apoptotic and pyroptotic features kept S.Tm loads persistently in check, thereby preventing this dire outcome altogether. Our results demonstrate that immediate and selective removal of infected enterocytes, by locally acting epithelium-autonomous NAIP/NLRC4, is required to avoid a TNF-driven inflammatory hyper-reaction that otherwise destroys the epithelial barrier.
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