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Oleic acid restores suppressive defects in tissue-resident FOXP3 Tregs from patients with multiple sclerosis
Saige L. Pompura, … , Margarita Dominguez-Villar, David A. Hafler
Saige L. Pompura, … , Margarita Dominguez-Villar, David A. Hafler
Published November 10, 2020
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2021;131(2):e138519. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI138519.
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Research Article Autoimmunity Immunology Article has an altmetric score of 462

Oleic acid restores suppressive defects in tissue-resident FOXP3 Tregs from patients with multiple sclerosis

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Abstract

FOXP3+ Tregs rely on fatty acid β-oxidation–driven (FAO-driven) oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) for differentiation and function. Recent data demonstrate a role for Tregs in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis, with tissue-resident Tregs possessing tissue-specific transcriptomes. However, specific signals that establish tissue-resident Treg programs remain largely unknown. Tregs metabolically rely on FAO, and considering the lipid-rich environments of tissues, we hypothesized that environmental lipids drive Treg homeostasis. First, using human adipose tissue to model tissue residency, we identified oleic acid as the most prevalent free fatty acid. Mechanistically, oleic acid amplified Treg FAO–driven OXPHOS metabolism, creating a positive feedback mechanism that increased the expression of FOXP3 and phosphorylation of STAT5, which enhanced Treg-suppressive function. Comparing the transcriptomic program induced by oleic acid with proinflammatory arachidonic acid, we found that Tregs sorted from peripheral blood and adipose tissue of healthy donors transcriptomically resembled the Tregs treated in vitro with oleic acid, whereas Tregs from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) more closely resembled an arachidonic acid transcriptomic profile. Finally, we found that oleic acid concentrations were reduced in patients with MS and that exposure of MS Tregs to oleic acid restored defects in their suppressive function. These data demonstrate the importance of fatty acids in regulating tissue inflammatory signals.

Authors

Saige L. Pompura, Allon Wagner, Alexandra Kitz, Jacob LaPerche, Nir Yosef, Margarita Dominguez-Villar, David A. Hafler

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Figure 4

Oleic acid transcriptomic signature characterizes healthy but not MS Tregs.

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Oleic acid transcriptomic signature characterizes healthy but not MS Tre...
(A and B) Tregs from peripheral blood of healthy donors were stimulated in the presence or absence of 10 μM oleic acid (OA) or arachidonic acid (AA). Each donor is represented by 2 dots, which correspond to the difference between oleic acid and the control or arachidonic acid and the control. (A) PCA was performed; each patient’s symbols are connected by a dashed line. Donors were partitioned into 3 separate date groups for tissue collection, denoted as batches (batch A took place over 2 consecutive days). (B) PC1 is scaled to [–1,1]; each line represents 1 donor (donor’s sex is indicated on the left). M1, male 1; F1, female 1. (C) Single-cell transcriptomes of Tregs were sorted from peripheral blood or adipose tissue of healthy donors (HC) or patients with MS and projected to a bidimensional space with UMAP (left). The same data are shown on the right, stratified by tissue and donor group. Colors indicate a computational signature of similarity to oleic acid– or arachidonic acid–stimulated blood Tregs (see the main text and Methods). (D and E) The computational signatures of single cells were aggregated and stratified by tissue, treatment group, and donor sex. Significance was determined by 2-sided Welch’s t test. (F) Densities of genes upregulated in healthy donors versus untreated patients with MS with respect to the loadings of PC1 shown in panel A (left) and a similar comparison of treated and untreated patients with MS (right). Significance was determined by 2-sided Welch’s t test. (G) Upset plot (101) showing the overlap of DEGs upregulated in healthy or MS (aggregating treated and untreated patients) states in the vivo single-cell RNA-Seq, and genes belonging to the oleic or arachidonic acid modules in the in vitro bulk RNA. The P value in G was calculated by hypergeometric enrichment test. NoTrt, no treatment; PrevTrt, previous treatment.

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ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

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