Elevated Hepatic Cd1d Levels Coincide with Invariant NKT Cell Defects in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection
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Elevated Hepatic CD1d Levels Coincide with Invariant NKT Cell Defects in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection This information is current as Xiaosheng Tan, Yajie Ding, Peng Zhu, Rui Dou, Zhihui of September 24, 2021. Liang, Daofeng Yang, Zhiyong Huang, Wei Wang, Xiongwen Wu and Xiufang Weng J Immunol published online 11 April 2018 http://www.jimmunol.org/content/early/2018/04/10/jimmun ol.1701801 Downloaded from Supplementary http://www.jimmunol.org/content/suppl/2018/04/11/jimmunol.170180 Material 1.DCSupplemental http://www.jimmunol.org/ Why The JI? Submit online. • Rapid Reviews! 30 days* from submission to initial decision • No Triage! Every submission reviewed by practicing scientists • Fast Publication! 4 weeks from acceptance to publication by guest on September 24, 2021 *average Subscription Information about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: http://jimmunol.org/subscription Permissions Submit copyright permission requests at: http://www.aai.org/About/Publications/JI/copyright.html Email Alerts Receive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at: http://jimmunol.org/alerts The Journal of Immunology is published twice each month by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc., 1451 Rockville Pike, Suite 650, Rockville, MD 20852 Copyright © 2018 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. All rights reserved. Print ISSN: 0022-1767 Online ISSN: 1550-6606. Published April 11, 2018, doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1701801 The Journal of Immunology Elevated Hepatic CD1d Levels Coincide with Invariant NKT Cell Defects in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection Xiaosheng Tan,* Yajie Ding,* Peng Zhu,† Rui Dou,* Zhihui Liang,* Daofeng Yang,‡ Zhiyong Huang,† Wei Wang,* Xiongwen Wu,* and Xiufang Weng* Activation of invariant NKT (iNKT) cells manifests antiviral immune responses in vivo. However, clinical trials have failed to show consistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA reduction postadministration of iNKT cell–specific agonist a-galactosylceramide (a-GalCer). In this study, we aimed to investigate HBV infection–related iNKT cell defects and explore iNKT cell–based thera- peutic potential for chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Liver specimens from 30 HBV-infected hepatocellular carcinoma patients were collected for CD1d/hepatitis B surface Ag (HBsAg) staining and/or intrahepatic iNKT cell assay. Two hundred and six chronic HBV-infected patients (including 130 CHB patients) were enrolled in the study of circulating iNKT cell frequency and function. We found that liver and hepatoma tissue that positively stained for HBsAg had higher CD1d expression as compared with HBsAg Downloaded from negatively stained counterparts. The elevated CD1d expression in infected tissue is supposed to facilitate the iNKT cell–based antiviral effects locally. However, iNKT cell defects that related with disease progression suggested iNKT cells attenuated their effects during chronic HBV infection. The residual iNKT cells in CHB patients showed aberrant activation and hyporesponsive- ness to a-GalCer. Exogenous IL-2 fully rescued a-GalCer–induced expansion of iNKT cells from CHB patients, and synergistic effects of IL-2 and IL-15 helped to recover the CD1d-dependent IFN-g production. In conclusion, our results highlight the increased CD1d expression in HBV-infected liver and differential iNKT cell defects associated with disease progression during http://www.jimmunol.org/ chronic HBV infection. The reversibility of iNKT cell defects suggests protective immune responses could be partially recovered in CHB. The Journal of Immunology, 2018, 200: 000–000. hronic hepatitis B (CHB) caused by hepatitis B virus recover after viral clearance by the development of a vigorous (HBV) infection is associated with significant mortality immune response associated with acute inflammatory liver dis- C and morbidity (1). Approximately 15–40% of patients eases (3). However, 90% of neonates and 30–50% of children with CHB infection develop fibrotic reaction and cirrhosis, which under 5 y of age exposed to HBV become chronic carriers, are associated with over 50% of the total cases of hepatocellular resulting in over 240 million people being chronically infected by guest on September 24, 2021 carcinoma (HCC) worldwide (2). Most HBV-infected adults (4, 5). Besides aiding in transformation, HBV plays a crucial role in enhancing immune suppression (6). During chronic HBV in- fection, T cells lost effector function after exposure over decades *Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, China; to high levels of the virus (7). The failure of the immune system to †Department of Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong Univer- eradicate the virus and to halt progression of HCC is closely linked ‡ sity of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, China; and Department of with pathogenesis and the survival of patients with HBV infection Infectious Disease, Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, (8, 9). Therefore, reconstitution of an efficient anti-HBV immune re- China sponse is still a promising approach for treatment of hepatitis B (10). ORCIDs: 0000-0001-9920-1555 (X.T.); 0000-0003-3647-8201 (R.D.); 0000-0003- CD1d-restricted invariant NKT (iNKT) cells that recognize lipid 2625-2137 (X. Weng). Ags are characterized by expression of an invariant TCR a-chain Received for publication January 2, 2018. Accepted for publication March 15, 2018. (Va14Ja18 in mice; Va24Ja18 in human) paired with a limited This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant array of TCR b-chains (Vb8.2, Vb7, or Vb2 in mice; Vb11 in 31570913 to X. Weng and 31370885 to X. Wu) and the 973 Program from the human) (11). As one of the predominant lymphocyte populations Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2013 CB530505). in liver, iNKT cells are potent regulators of the local immune X.T. and X. Weng conceived and designed the experiments. X.T., Y.D., W.W., and R.D. performed the experiments. P.Z., D.Y., and Z.H. collected clinical samples. X.T., system (11). Upon activation, iNKT cells respond with robust Th1 P.Z., D.Y., Z.L., X. Wu, and X. Weng analyzed the data. X.T., X. Wu, and X. Weng and Th2 cytokine production, helping to modulate both innate and wrote the article. adaptive immune responses (12). Despite low frequency in hu- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Xiufang Weng and Dr. Xiongwen mans, iNKT cell activity is now recognized to play important roles Wu, Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 13 Hangkong Road, Wuhan, in infectious disease (13). In humans with X-linked lymphopro- Hubei 430030, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (X. Weng) and liferative syndrome, a selective defect in iNKT cells is associated [email protected] (X. Wu) with lethal EBV infection and increased lymphoma (14, 15). Al- The online version of this article contains supplemental material. though studies on transgenic mouse models of HBV infection have Abbreviations used in this article: ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AST, aspartate suggested iNKT cell control of HBV replication (16), less is aminotransferase; CHB, chronic hepatitis B; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; FasL, Fas ligand; a-GalCer, a-galactosylceramide; HBeAb, hepatitis B e Ab; HBeAg, hepatitis known about the role of iNKT cells in chronic HBV infection in B e Ag; HBsAg, hepatitis B surface Ag; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HCC, hepatocellular humans. Current descriptions of frequency and functional status of carcinoma; HD, healthy donor; IC, inactive carrier; iNKT, invariant NKT; IT, im- iNKT cells are highly inconsistent in chronic HBV-infected mune tolerance; MNC, mononuclear cell. patients. Both increased circulating iNKT cell frequency with Copyright Ó 2018 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. 0022-1767/18/$35.00 elevated IFN-g production (17) and reduced circulating iNKT cell www.jimmunol.org/cgi/doi/10.4049/jimmunol.1701801 2 iNKT CELL DEFECTS IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS B frequency with preserved function (18) have been reported in Flow cytometry CHB patients. iNKT cells have also been implicated in liver injury PBS57/CD1d tetramer was kindly gifted by the National Institutes of Health and HCC through secreting IL-4 and IL-13 (19). Of note, char- Tetramer Core Facility. Cells were stained with PBS57/CD1d tetramer, acterization of iNKT cells and CD1d expression in HBV-infected corresponding Abs, and/or CFSE (Thermo Fisher). The IFN-g in-culture liver tissue is poorly elucidated. supernatant was determined by using Cytometric Bead Array Flex Sets Marine sponge–derived agent a-galactosylceramide (a-GalCer) (BD Biosciences). Data were collected using FACSVerse or LSR II cytometer (BD Biosciences) and analyzed by FlowJo software (Tree Star). is a specific agonist of iNKT cells and capable of expanding CFSE proliferation assay was analyzed by ModFit LT V3.2 (Verity Soft- iNKT cells in vivo and in vitro (20). Activation of iNKT cells by ware House). a-GalCer inhibits HBV replication and promotes the breakage of Immunofluorescence staining CD8+ T cell tolerance in HBV transgenic animals (21). Further- more, increased iNKT cell ratio is associated with enhanced an- Liver and hepatoma specimens were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde, em- titumor effect against hepatitis B surface