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Expansion of invariant natural killer T cells from systemic lupus erythematosus patients by alpha-Galactosylceramide and IL-15

  • Chien Ya Hsu
  • , Yu Shan Chueh
  • , Ming Ling Kuo
  • , Pei Tzu Lee
  • , Hsiu Shan Hsiao
  • , Jing Long Huang*
  • , Syh Jae Lin*
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Chang Gung University
  • Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

CD1d-restricted invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT cells) may play an important role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Interleukin (IL)-15 is a pro-inflammatory cytokine which is over-expressed in SLE patients. In the present study, we investigated the iNKT cell expansion of mononuclear cells (MNCs) from SLE patients following 10 days' culture with α-galactosylceramide (α-Galcer) and /or IL-15. We sought to determine the phenotypic and functional characteristics of the expanded iNKT cells compared to healthy controls and correlated with disease activity. We observed that 1. The percentages of Vα24 +/Vβ11+ iNKT cells following 10-day incubation was lower in SLE groups compared to controls; 2. The percentages and absolute numbers of Vα24+/Vβ11+ iNKT cells were expanded by α-galactosylceramide (α-Galcer), and further enhanced with IL-15 in SLE patient, but the effect of IL-15 was much lower than controls; 3.IL-15 +α-Galcer expanded CD3+/CD56+ NKT-like cells from SLE patients, especially with active disease 4. The CD161+ Vα24 +/Vβ11+ iNKT cells in SLE were more responsive to α-Galcer stimulation than the CD161- counterpart; 5. IL-15 decreased apoptosis of α-Galcer activated SLE iNKT cells; 6. IL-15 enhanced CD69, CD1d and CD11a expression on α-Galcer treated iNKT cells; 7. The IL-4 production of iNKT cells was decreased in SLE patients compared to controls; 8. IL-15 increased IFN-γ and IL-4 production of SLE iNKT cells; 8. IL-15 failed to augment the ability of iNKT cells to aid NK-mediated K562 cytolysis in SLE patients; 9. CD161 positivity, granzyme B and perforin expression of α-Galcer+IL-15 expanded iNKT cells correlated with C3 levels in SLE patients. Taken together, our results demonstrated numeric and functional deficiency of iNKT cells and their response to IL-15 in SLE patients. Our finding may provide insight for using adoptive iNKT cell therapy in autoimmune diseases.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0261727
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume16
Issue number12 December
DOIs
StatePublished - 12 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Hsu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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