Dendritic cell Piezo1 stimulated by mechanical stiffness or inflammatory signals directs the differentiation of TH1 and Treg cells in cancer
- Beijing Normal University, China
- Fudan University, China
- Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, China
Abstract
Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in anti-tumor immunity by inducing T cell differentiation. Herein, we found that the DC mechanical sensor Piezo1 stimulated by mechanical stiffness or inflammatory signals directs the reciprocal differentiation of TH1 and regulatory T (Treg) cells in cancer. Genetic deletion of Piezo1 in DCs inhibited the generation of TH1 cells while driving the development of Treg cells in promoting cancer growth in mice. Mechanistically, Piezo1-deficient DCs regulated the secretion of the polarizing cytokines TGFβ1 and IL-12, leading to increased TGFβR2-p-Smad3 activity and decreased IL-12Rβ2-p-STAT4 activity while inducing the reciprocal differentiation of Treg and TH1 cells. In addition, Piezo1 integrated the SIRT1-hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1α)-dependent metabolic pathway and calcium-calcineurin-NFAT signaling pathway to orchestrate reciprocal TH1 and Treg lineage commitment through DC-derived IL-12 and TGFβ1. Our studies provide critical insight for understanding the role of the DC-based mechanical regulation of immunopathology in directing T cell lineage commitment in tumor microenvironments.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files; Source Data files have provided for Fig.1.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation for Key Programm of China (31730024)
- Guangwei Liu
National Natural Science Foundation for General Program of China (32170911)
- Guangwei Liu
Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation of China (5202013)
- Guangwei Liu
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Fudan University, Shanghai, China, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology and Beijing Normal University (IACUC-DWZX-2017-003 and CLS-EAW-2017-002)
Human subjects: Normal human DCs (CC-2701; Lonza) and human cord blood CD4+ T cells (2C-200; Lonza) were obtained from Lonza Company. All human subject experiments were performed with the approval of the Ethics Committee of of Fudan University, China and Beijing Normal University, China.
Copyright
© 2022, Wang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Dendritic cell Piezo1 stimulated by mechanical stiffness or inflammatory signals directs the differentiation of TH1 and Treg cells in cancer
eLife 11:e79957.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79957
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