Sonn, A. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2024

T cell mediated impairment of epithelial integrity in Crohn's disease

T lymphocytes play a major role in intestinal homeostasis, with a particular impact on the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). In Crohns disease (CD) patients, the intestinal mucosa is inflamed, epithelium permeability is increased, and IECs present compositional and functional defects. The role of T lymphocytes interactions with IECs in the physiopathology of CD remains in question. Here, we use a three-dimensional human autologous coculture model between purified intestinal organoids derived from primary tissues of CD and non-inflammatory control patients, and mucosal T lymphocytes extracted from the same location. We show that while in homeostatic context T cells support the proliferation and differentiation balance of organoids, mucosal T lymphocytes from CD patients present a high cytotoxicity against IECs. Importantly, this cytotoxicity is a persistent defect overtime in culture. Organoids also show defective intestinal stem cells (ISCs) proliferation and morphological changes. Single cell RNA sequencing after coculture highlights a general response of T cells to the epithelial microenvironment, and more particularly, an increase activation of a pro-inflammatory CD8+ T cells effector population in CD patients compared to controls. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=187 SRC="FIGDIR/small/621219v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (53K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@78453aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@8f484org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ed0934org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f75094_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

immunology↗

bioRxiv2024

Senescent fibroblasts support tumor growth by inducing immune cell death in humanized models

Syngeneic mouse tumor models have shown that senescence influences the tumor immune response in multiple ways, including the induction of an immunosuppressive microenvironment or the promotion of immune cell recruitment. Yet, the impact of senescence on the tumor immune response in a humanized setting remains largely unexplored. To address this, we employed tumor spheroids and mice bearing tumors immunogenic to human immune cells derived from the same donor. We found that senescent fibroblasts exert a dual effect by enhancing the recruitment of immune cells into the tumor microenvironment while simultaneously promoting the apoptosis of T and NK cells. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that this apoptosis is primarily due to increased Fas ligand (FasL) expression on the surface of senescent fibroblasts. Deletion of FasL on fibroblasts was sufficient to prevent immune cell death and increase tumor cell killing. Our results highlight the importance of evaluating the impact of therapy-induced senescence in humanized models to understand and predict the outcome of cancer treatments.

cancer biology↗