Article abstract


Nature Medicine 15, 401 - 409 (2009)
Published online: 1 March 2009 | doi:10.1038/nm.1925

Toll-like receptor 2–dependent induction of vitamin A–metabolizing enzymes in dendritic cells promotes T regulatory responses and inhibits autoimmunity

Santhakumar Manicassamy1, Rajesh Ravindran1, Jiusheng Deng1, Herold Oluoch1, Timothy L Denning1, Sudhir Pai Kasturi1, Kristen M Rosenthal2, Brian D Evavold2 & Bali Pulendran1,3


Immune sensing of a microbe occurs via multiple receptors. How signals from different receptors are coordinated to yield a specific immune response is poorly understood. We show that two pathogen recognition receptors, Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and dectin-1, recognizing the same microbial stimulus, stimulate distinct innate and adaptive responses. TLR2 signaling induced splenic dendritic cells (DCs) to express the retinoic acid metabolizing enzyme retinaldehyde dehydrogenase type 2 and interleukin-10 (IL-10) and to metabolize vitamin A and stimulate Foxp3+ T regulatory cells (Treg cells). Retinoic acid acted on DCs to induce suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 expression, which suppressed activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and proinflammatory cytokines. Consistent with this finding, TLR2 signaling induced Treg cells and suppressed IL-23 and T helper type 17 (TH17) and TH1-mediated autoimmune responses in vivo. In contrast, dectin-1 signaling mostly induced IL-23 and proinflammatory cytokines and augmented TH17 and TH1-mediated autoimmune responses in vivo. These data define a new mechanism for the systemic induction of retinoic acid and immune suppression against autoimmunity.

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  1. Emory Vaccine Center, and Yerkes National Primate Research Center, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA.
  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University, 1510 Clifton Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 USA.
  3. Department of Pathology, Emory University, 1364 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

Correspondence to: Bali Pulendran1,3 e-mail: bpulend@emory.edu



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