Change of Dendritic Cell Subsets Involved in Protection Against Listeria monocytogenes Infection in Short-Term-Fasted Mice

Young-Jun Ju; Kyung-Min Lee; Girak Kim; Yoon-Chul Kye; Han Wool Kim; Hyuk Chu; Byung-Chul Park; Jae-Ho Cho; Pahn-Shick Chang; Seung Hyun Han; Cheol-Heui Yun

doi:10.4110/in.2022.22.e16

Change of Dendritic Cell Subsets Involved in Protection Against Listeria monocytogenes Infection in Short-Term-Fasted Mice

Immune Netw. 2022 Mar 30;22(2):e16. doi: 10.4110/in.2022.22.e16. eCollection 2022 Apr.

Authors

Young-Jun Ju¹, Kyung-Min Lee¹, Girak Kim¹, Yoon-Chul Kye¹, Han Wool Kim¹, Hyuk Chu², Byung-Chul Park³, Jae-Ho Cho⁴, Pahn-Shick Chang^{1

5

6}, Seung Hyun Han⁷, Cheol-Heui Yun^{1

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
² Division of Zoonotic and Vector Borne Disease Research, Center for Infectious Disease Research, National Institute of Health, Cheongju 28159, Korea.
³ Institute of Green Bio Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Pyeongchang 25354, Korea.
⁴ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Hwasun Hospital, Hwasun 58128, Korea.
⁵ Center for Agricultural Microorganism and Enzyme, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
⁶ Center for Food and Biocenvergence, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
⁷ Department of Oral Microbiology and Immunology, and Dental Research Institute, School of Dentistry, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.

Abstract

The gastrointestinal tract is the first organ directly affected by fasting. However, little is known about how fasting influences the intestinal immune system. Intestinal dendritic cells (DCs) capture antigens, migrate to secondary lymphoid organs, and provoke adaptive immune responses. We evaluated the changes of intestinal DCs in mice with short-term fasting and their effects on protective immunity against Listeria monocytogenes (LM). Fasting induced an increased number of CD103⁺CD11b^- DCs in both small intestinal lamina propria (SILP) and mesenteric lymph nodes (mLN). The SILP CD103⁺CD11b^- DCs showed proliferation and migration, coincident with increased levels of GM-CSF and C-C chemokine receptor type 7, respectively. At 24 h post-infection with LM, there was a significant reduction in the bacterial burden in the spleen, liver, and mLN of the short-term-fasted mice compared to those fed ad libitum. Also, short-term-fasted mice showed increased survival after LM infection compared with ad libitum-fed mice. It could be that significantly high TGF-β2 and Aldh1a2 expression in CD103⁺CD11b^- DCs in mice infected with LM might affect to increase of Foxp3⁺ regulatory T cells. Changes of major subset of DCs from CD103⁺ to CD103^- may induce the increase of IFN-γ-producing cells with forming Th1-biased environment. Therefore, the short-term fasting affects protection against LM infection by changing major subset of intestinal DCs from tolerogenic to Th1 immunogenic.

Keywords: Dendritic cells; Fasting; Listeria monocytogenes.