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IL-10-producing regulatory B cells restrain the T follicular helper cell response in primary Sjögren’s syndrome

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 16, pages 921–931 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Increased numbers of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells have been implicated in the development of autoimmune diseases including primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS), but how the Tfh cell response is regulated during autoimmune pathogenesis remains largely unclear. Here, we first found negative correlations between IL-10+ regulatory B (Breg) cell numbers and Tfh cell responses and disease activity in patients with pSS and mice with experimental Sjögren’s syndrome (ESS). Moreover, we detected high expression of IL-10 receptor on Tfh cells and their precursors in both humans and mice. In culture, IL-10 suppressed human and murine Tfh cell differentiation by promoting STAT5 phosphorylation. By using an adoptive transfer approach and two-photon live imaging, we found significantly increased numbers of Tfh cells with enhanced T cell homing into B cell follicles in the draining cervical lymph nodes of RAG-2−/− mice transferred with IL-10-deficient B cells during ESS development compared with those of RAG-2−/− mice transferred with wild-type B cells. In ESS mice, CD19+CD1dhiCD5+ Breg cells with decreased IL-10 production exhibited severely impaired suppressive effects on T cell proliferation. Consistently, CD19+CD24+CD38hi Breg cells from pSS patients showed significantly reduced IL-10 production with defective inhibitory function in the suppression of autologous Tfh cell expansion. Furthermore, the adoptive transfer of IL-10-producing Breg cells markedly suppressed the Tfh cell response and ameliorated ESS progression in ESS mice. Together, these findings demonstrate a critical role for IL-10-producing Breg cells in restraining the effector Tfh cell response during pSS development.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Helen Zhi from the Biostatistics and Clinical Research Methodology Unit, The University of Hong Kong, who provided valuable suggestions for the statistical analysis. We thank the professional service provided by the Faculty Core facility, The University of Hong Kong. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81771761 and 91842304); Chinese National Key Technology R&D Program, Ministry of Science and Technology (2017YFC0907601 and 2017YFC0907605); General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council (17114515 and 17149716); Hong Kong Croucher Foundation (260960116); and Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (SZSM201512019).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiang Lin, Xiaohui Wang

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology and Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Xiang Lin, Xiaohui Wang, Fan Xiao, Kongyang Ma & Liwei Lu

  2. Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, China

    Lixiong Liu, Xiaoqi Wang & Dongzhou Liu

  3. Department of Rheumatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China

    Dong Xu & Yan Zhao

  4. Department of Rheumatology, The First Affiliated Hospital and College of Clinical Medicine, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China

    Fei Wang & Xiaofei Shi

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Contributions

L.L. and X.L. designed and conceived the experiments. X.L. performed the experiments. X.W., F.X., K.M., X.W., L.L., D.X., F.W., X.S., Y.Z. and D.L. provided patient samples and analyzed data. All of the authors interpreted the data and discussed the results. L.L. and X.L. prepared the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dongzhou Liu, Yan Zhao or Liwei Lu.

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Lin, X., Wang, X., Xiao, F. et al. IL-10-producing regulatory B cells restrain the T follicular helper cell response in primary Sjögren’s syndrome. Cell Mol Immunol 16, 921–931 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-019-0227-z

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