Nat Commun. 2019 Aug 29;10(1):3887. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11638-3.
Oligodendrocyte precursor cells present antigen and are cytotoxic targets in inflammatory demyelination.
Kirby L1, Jin J1, Cardona JG1, Smith MD1, Martin KA1, Wang J2, Strasburger H1, Herbst L1, Alexis M1, Karnell J2, Davidson T2, Dutta R3, Goverman J4, Bergles D5, Calabresi PA6,7.
ABSTRACT
Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are abundant in the adult central nervous system, and have the capacity to regenerate oligodendrocytes and myelin. However, in inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) remyelination is often incomplete. To investigate how neuroinflammation influences OPCs, we perform in vivo fate-tracing in an inflammatory demyelinating mouse model. Here we report that OPC differentiation is inhibited by both effector T cells and IFNγ overexpression by astrocytes. IFNγ also reduces the absolute number of OPCs and alters remaining OPCs by inducing the immunoproteasome and MHC class I. In vitro, OPCs exposed to IFNγ cross-present antigen to cytotoxic CD8 T cells, resulting in OPC death. In human demyelinated MS brain lesions, but not normal appearing white matter, oligodendroglia exhibit enhanced expression of the immunoproteasome subunit PSMB8. Therefore, OPCs may be co-opted by the immune system in MS to perpetuate the autoimmune response, suggesting that inhibiting immune activation of OPCs may facilitate remyelination.
1 Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
2 MedImmune LLC, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.
3 Department of Neuroscience, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA.
4 Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
5 Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
6 Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. pcalabr1@jhmi.edu.
7 Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. pcalabr1@jhmi.edu.