Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

An essential role of IκBζ in the transcriptional program in Th17 development

IL-17-producing helper T (Th17) cells are a distinct T cell subset characterized by its pathological role in autoimmune diseases. Our group previously showed that Th17 cells function as osteoclastogenic helper T cells in bone destruction associated with inflammation, and that inhibition of Th17 development has the potential of a beneficial impact on bone diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [1]. It is therefore important to comprehend the molecular mechanism underlying Th17 development in order to develop ideal therapeutic strategies against RA.

IL-6 and TGF-β induce Th17 development, in which the orphan nuclear receptors RORγt and RORα play an indispensable role. We found that the expression of a nuclear IκB family member, IκBζ (encoded by the Nfkbiz gene), was upregulated by the combination of IL-6 and TGF-β, but independently of RORγt [2]. Not only Nfkbiz-/- mice but also Rag2-/- mice transferred with Nfkbiz-/- CD4+ T cells were highly resistant to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, which is a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. Nfkbiz-/- mice were also protected from the activation of osteoclastogenesis and bone destruction in a LPS-induced model of inflammatory bone destruction. When activated in vitro under Th17-polarizing conditions, IL-17 production in Nfkbiz-/- T cells was markedly reduced compared to WT cells. Notably, the expression of RORγt and RORα was comparable between WT and Nfkbiz-/- T cells. Thus, it is unlikely that ROR nuclear receptors function downstream of IκBζ or vice versa.

In the absence of IL-6 and TGF-β, neither the ROR nuclear receptors nor IκBζ induced Th17 development efficiently. However, when IκBζ was overexpressed, either RORγt or RORα strongly induced IL-17 production, even in the absence of exogenous polarizing cytokines. In cooperation with RORγt and RORα, IκBζ enhanced Il17a expression by directly binding to the regulatory region of the Il17a gene. In addition, the expression of Il17f, Il21 and Il23r mRNA was decreased in Nfkbiz-/- T cells. IκBζ also bound to the promoter or the enhancer region of these genes in Th17 cells. Our study demonstrates the essential role of IκBζ in Th17 development, and points to a molecular basis for a novel therapeutic strategy against autoimmune disease.

References

  1. Sato K, Suematsu A, Okamoto K, Yamaguchi A, Morishita Y, Kadono Y, Tanaka S, Kodama T, Akira S, Iwakura Y, Cua DJ, Takayanagi H: Th17 functions as an osteoclastogenic helper T cell subset that links T cell activation and bone destruction. J Exp Med. 2006, 203: 2673-2682. 10.1084/jem.20061775.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Okamoto K, Iwai Y, Oh-Hora M, Yamamoto M, Morio T, Aoki K, Ohya K, Jetten AM, Akira S, Muta T, Takayanagi H: IκBζ regulates TH17 development by cooperating with ROR nuclear receptors. Nature. 2010, 464: 1381-1385. 10.1038/nature08922.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Okamoto, K., Oh-hora, M. & Takayanagi, H. An essential role of IκBζ in the transcriptional program in Th17 development. Arthritis Res Ther 14 (Suppl 1), P56 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/ar3691

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/ar3691

Keywords