IRF8 Impacts Self-Renewal of Hematopoietic Stem Cells by Regulating TLR9 Signaling Pathway of Innate Immune Cells.

IRF8 is a key regulator of innate immunity receptor signaling and plays diverse functions in the development of hematopoietic cells. The effects of IRF8 on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are still unknown. Here, it is demonstrated that IRF8 deficiency results in a decreased number of long-term HSCs (LT-HSCs) in mice. However, the repopulation capacity of individual HSCs is significantly increased. Transcriptomic analysis shows that IFN-γ and IFN-α signaling is downregulated in IRF8-deficient HSCs, while their response to proinflammatory cytokines is unchanged ex vivo. Further tests show that Irf8-/- HSCs can not respond to CpG, an agonist of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) in mice, while long-term CpG stimulation increases wild-type HSC abundance and decreases their bone marrow colony-forming capacity. Mechanistically, as the primary producer of proinflammatory cytokines in response to CpG stimulation, dendritic cells has a blocked TLR9 signaling due to developmental defect in Irf8-/- mice. Macrophages remain functionally intact but severely reduce in Irf8-/- mice. In NK cells, IRF8 directly regulates the expression of Tlr9 and its deficiency leads to no increased IFNγ production upon CpG stimulation. These results indicate that IRF8 regulates HSCs, at least in part, through controlling TLR9 signaling in diverse innate immune cells.

Zfyve16 regulates the proliferation of B-lymphoid cells.

Zfyve16 (a.k.a. endofin or endosome-associated FYVE-domain protein), a member of the FYVE-domain protein family, is involved in endosomal trafficking and in TGF-ß, BMP, and EGFR signaling. The FYVE protein SARA regulates the TGF-ß signaling pathway by recruiting Smad2/3 and accelerating their phosphorylation, thereby altering their susceptibility to TGF-ß-mediated T cell suppression. Zfyve16 binds to Smad4 and their binding affects the formation of Smad2/3-Smad4 complex in TGF-ß signaling. However, the in vivo function of Zfyve16 remains unknown. In this study, we generated a Zfyve16 knockout mouse strain (Zfyve16KO) and examined its hematopoietic phenotypes and hematopoietic reconstruction ability. The proportion of Tcells in the peripheral blood of Zfyve16KO mice increases compared with that in wild-type mice. This finding is consistent with the role of Zfyve16 in facilitating TGF-ß signaling. Unpredictably, B cell proliferation is inhibited in Zfyve16KO mice. The proliferation potential of Zfyve16KO B-lymphoid cells also significantly decreases in vitro. These results suggest that Zfyve16 inhibits the proliferation of T cells, possibly through the TGF-ß signaling, but upregulates the proliferation of B-lymphoid cells.