Lactate-Dependent Regulation of Immune Responses by Dendritic Cells and Macrophages.

For decades, lactate has been considered an innocuous bystander metabolite of cellular metabolism. However, emerging studies show that lactate acts as a complex immunomodulatory molecule that controls innate and adaptive immune cells' effector functions. Thus, recent advances point to lactate as an essential and novel signaling molecule that shapes innate and adaptive immune responses in the intestine and systemic sites. Here, we review these recent advances in the context of the pleiotropic effects of lactate in regulating diverse functions of immune cells in the tissue microenvironment and under pathological conditions.

Monocarboxylate Transporter 4 Triggered Cell Pyroptosis to Aggravate Intestinal Inflammation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

NLRP3 inflammasome has emerged as a crucial regulator of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. The expression of MCT4 is significantly increased in intestinal mucosal tissue of IBD, which has been identified to regulate intestinal barrier function. However, the function of MCT4 in cell pyroptosis remained unknown. In this study, we have established a stable cell line with MCT4 overexpression in HT-29 and CaCO2 cells, respectively. Functional analysis revealed that ectopic expression of MCT4 in CaCO2 cells contributed to cell pyroptosis as evidenced by LDH assay, which is largely attributed to Caspase-1-mediated canonical pyroptosis, but not Caspase-4 and Caspase-5, leading to cleave pro-IL-1ß and IL-18 into mature form and release mediated by cleaved GSDMD. Mechanically, MCT4 overexpression in HT-29 and CaCO2 cell triggered the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and NF-κB p65, while inhibition of MCT4 by MCT inhibitor α-Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (α-CHCA) in HT-29 and CaCO2 cells led to a significant downregulation of ERK1/2 and NF-κB activity. What's more, blockade of ERK1/2-NF-κB pathway could reverse the promotion effect of MCT4 on IL-1ß expression. Importantly, both MCT4 and Caspase-1, GSDMD were significantly increased in patients with IBD, and a positive clinical correlation between MCT4 and Caspase-1 expression was observed (p < 0.001). Taken together, these findings suggested that MCT4 promoted Caspase-1-mediated canonical cell pyroptosis to aggravate intestinal inflammation in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) through the ERK1/2-NF-κB pathway.

Lactic acid suppresses IgE-mediated mast cell function in vitro and in vivo.

Mast cells have functional plasticity affected by their tissue microenvironment, which greatly impacts their inflammatory responses. Because lactic acid (LA) is abundant in inflamed tissues and tumors, we investigated how it affects mast cell function. Using IgE-mediated activation as a model system, we found that LA suppressed inflammatory cytokine production and degranulation in mouse peritoneal mast cells, data that were confirmed with human skin mast cells. In mouse peritoneal mast cells, LA-mediated cytokine suppression was dependent on pH- and monocarboxylic transporter-1 expression. Additionally, LA reduced IgE-induced Syk, Btk, and ERK phosphorylation, key signals eliciting inflammation. In vivo, LA injection reduced IgE-mediated hypothermia in mice undergoing passive systemic anaphylaxis. Our data suggest that LA may serve as a feedback inhibitor that limits mast cell-mediated inflammation.

The monocarboxylate transporter 4 is required for glycolytic reprogramming and inflammatory response in macrophages.

There has been fast growing evidence showing that glycolysis plays a critical role in the activation of immune cells. Enhanced glycolysis leads to increased formation of intracellular lactate that is exported to the extracellular environment by monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4). Although the biological activities of extracellular lactate have been well studied, it is less understood how the lactate export is regulated or whether lactate export affects glycolysis during inflammatory activation. In this study, we found that MCT4 is up-regulated by TLR2 and TLR4, but not TLR3 agonists in a variety of macrophages. The increased expression of MCT4 was mediated by MYD88 in a NF-κB-dependent manner. Furthermore, we found that MCT4 is required for macrophage activation upon TLR2 and TLR4 stimulations, as evidenced by attenuated expression of proinflammatory mediators in macrophages with MCT4 knockdown. Mechanistically, we found that MCT4 knockdown leads to enhanced intracellular accumulation of lactate and decreased glycolysis in LPS-treated macrophages. We found that LPS-induced expression of key glycolytic enzymes hexokinase 2 and 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 is diminished in macrophages with MCT4 knockdown. Our data suggest that MCT4 up-regulation represents a positive feedback mechanism in macrophages to maintain a high glycolytic rate that is essential to a fully activated inflammatory response.

A reverse Warburg metabolism in oral squamous cell carcinoma is not dependent upon myofibroblasts.

BACKGROUND: The reverse Warburg effect describes the phenomenon that epithelial cancer cells take advantage of the metabolic machinery from nearby cancer-associated fibroblast, inducing them to produce lactate and ketones to fuel the high metabolic demands of the epithelial tumour tissues. This is in breast cancer observed as a lack of stromal caveolin-1 (CAV-1) and an increased expression of monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT-4) in the tumour stroma, with a concomitant increase in the expression of monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT-1) in the epithelial, tumour compartment. The lack of CAV-1 and increased expression of MCT-4 have been shown to have prognostic importance, primarily in patients with breast cancer. However, this phenomenon has only scarcely been described in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Given the prognostic importance of myofibroblasts in OSCC, we also examined a potential relationship between the expression of MCT-4 and the presence of myofibroblasts. METHODS: Paraffin-embedded tissues from 30 patients with OSCC were immunostained with antibodies towards MCT-1, MCT-4, Cav-1, GLUT-1, α-SMA, TOMM20 and KI-67, and evaluated for their specific epithelial and stromal expression. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In patients with OSCC, we find an increased expression of MCT-1 and MCT-4 in both the epithelial and stromal compartment, with almost no overlap in their spatial expression. We found a large spatial overlap between α-SMA and MCT-1 in the stroma compartment, but no relationship between MCT-4 and myofibroblasts. Interestingly, we did not observe any relationship between the absence of CAV-1 and the presence of MCT-4 as has been shown in breast carcinomas.

EMMPRIN reduction via scFv-M6-1B9 intrabody affects α3ß1-integrin and MCT1 functions and results in suppression of progressive phenotype in the colorectal cancer cell line Caco-2.

Extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) exhibits overexpression in various cancers and promotes cancer progression and metastasis via the interaction with its associated molecules. The scFv-M6-1B9 intrabody has a potential ability to reduce EMMPRIN cell surface expression. However, the subsequent effect of scFv-M6-1B9 intrabody-mediated EMMPRIN abatement on its related molecules, α3ß1-integrin, MCT1, MMP-2 and MMP-9, is undefined. Our results demonstrated that the scFv-M6-1B9 intrabody efficiently decreased α3ß1-integrin cell surface expression levels. In addition, intracellular accumulation of MCT1 and lactate were increased. These results lead to suppression of features characteristic for tumor progression, including cell migration, proliferation and invasion, in a colorectal cancer cell line (Caco-2) although there was no difference in MMP expression. Thus, EMMPRIN represents an attractive target molecule for the disruption of cancer proliferation and metastasis. An scFv-M6-1B9 intrabody-based approach could be relevant for cancer gene therapy.

Mitochondrial metabolism in cancer metastasis: visualizing tumor cell mitochondria and the "reverse Warburg effect" in positive lymph node tissue.

We have recently proposed a new two-compartment model for understanding the Warburg effect in tumor metabolism. In this model, glycolytic stromal cells produce mitochondrial fuels (L-lactate and ketone bodies) that are then transferred to oxidative epithelial cancer cells, driving OXPHOS and mitochondrial metabolism. Thus, stromal catabolism fuels anabolic tumor growth via energy transfer. We have termed this new cancer paradigm the "reverse Warburg effect," because stromal cells undergo aerobic glycolysis, rather than tumor cells. To assess whether this mechanism also applies during cancer cell metastasis, we analyzed the bioenergetic status of breast cancer lymph node metastases, by employing a series of metabolic protein markers. For this purpose, we used MCT4 to identify glycolytic cells. Similarly, we used TO MM20 and COX staining as markers of mitochondrial mass and OXPHOS activity, respectively. Consistent with the "reverse Warburg effect," our results indicate that metastatic breast cancer cells amplify oxidative mitochondrial metabolism (OXPHOS) and that adjacent stromal cells are glycolytic and lack detectable mitochondria. Glycolytic stromal cells included cancer-associated fibroblasts, adipocytes and inflammatory cells. Double labeling experiments with glycolytic (MCT4) and oxidative (TO MM20 or COX) markers directly shows that at least two different metabolic compartments co-exist, side-by-side, within primary tumors and their metastases. Since cancer-associated immune cells appeared glycolytic, this observation may also explain how inflammation literally "fuels" tumor progression and metastatic dissemination, by "feeding" mitochondrial metabolism in cancer cells. Finally, MCT4(+) and TO MM20(-) "glycolytic" cancer cells were rarely observed, indicating that the conventional "Warburg effect" does not frequently occur in cancer-positive lymph node metastases.

Lactate boosts TLR4 signaling and NF-kappaB pathway-mediated gene transcription in macrophages via monocarboxylate transporters and MD-2 up-regulation.

It has been shown that lactate induces insulin resistance. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been well understood. Based on our observation that lactate augments LPS-stimulated inflammatory gene expression, we proposed that lactate may enhance TLR4 signaling in macrophages, which has been shown to play an important role in insulin resistance in adipocytes. In this study, we demonstrated that lactate stimulated MD-2, a coreceptor for TLR4 signaling activation, NF-kappaB transcriptional activity, and the expression of inflammatory genes in human U937 histiocytes (resident macrophages). Similar enhancement of the inflammatory gene expression by lactate was also observed in human monocyte-derived macrophages. The essential role of MD-2 in lactate-augmented TLR4 signaling was confirmed by observation that the suppression of MD-2 expression by small interfering RNA led to significant inhibition of inflammatory gene expression. To further elucidate how lactate treatment enhances TLR4 activation, we showed that the augmentation of inflammatory gene expression by lactate was abrogated by antioxidant treatment, suggesting a critical role of reactive oxygen species in the enhancement of TLR4 activation by lactate. Finally, we showed that alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid, a classic inhibitor for monocarboxylate transporters, blocked lactate-augmented inflammatory gene expression and nuclear NF-kappaB activity, indicating that lactate transport through monocarboxylate transporters is required for lactate-enhanced TLR4 activation. Collectively, this study documents that lactate boosts TLR4 activation and NF-kappaB-dependent inflammatory gene expression via monocarboxylate transporters and MD-2 up-regulation.

Down-regulation of the monocarboxylate transporter 1 is involved in butyrate deficiency during intestinal inflammation.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Butyrate oxidation is impaired in intestinal mucosa of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Butyrate uptake by colonocytes involves the monocarboxylate transporter (MCT) 1. We aimed to investigate the role of MCT1 in butyrate oxidation deficiency during colonic inflammation. METHODS: Colonic tissues were collected from patients with IBD or healthy controls and from rats with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. The intestinal epithelial cell line HT-29 was treated with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). MCT1 expression was analyzed by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunofluorescence. Butyrate uptake and oxidation in HT-29 cells was assessed using [(14)C]-butyrate. The mechanism of MCT1 gene regulation was analyzed by nuclear run-on and reporter gene assays. RESULTS: MCT1 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels were markedly decreased in inflamed colonic mucosa of IBD patients and rats. In HT-29 cells, down-regulation of MCT1 mRNA and protein abundance by IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha correlated with a decrease in butyrate uptake and subsequent oxidation. IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha did not affect MCT1 mRNA stability but rather down-regulated gene transcription. We demonstrate that the cytokine response element is located in the proximal -111/+213 core region of the MCT1 promoter. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that butyrate oxidation deficiency in intestinal inflammation is a consequence of reduction in MCT1-mediated butyrate uptake. This reinforces the proposition that butyrate oxidation deficiency in IBD is not a primary defect.