T cells from patients with lupus or treated with the lupus-inducing drug hydralazine have defective ERK phosphorylation. The reason for the impaired signal transduction is unknown but important to elucidate, because decreased T cell ERK pathway signaling causes a lupus-like disease in animal models by decreasing DNA methyltransferase expression, leading to DNA hypomethylation and overexpression of methylation-sensitive genes with subsequent autoreactivity and autoimmunity. We therefore analyzed the PMA stimulated ERK pathway phosphorylation cascade in CD4(+) T cells from patients with lupus and in hydralazine-treated cells. The defect in these cells localized to protein kinase C (PKC)delta. Pharmacologic inhibition of PKCdelta or transfection with a dominant negative PKCdelta mutant caused demethylation of the TNFSF7 (CD70) promoter and CD70 overexpression similar to lupus and hydralazine-treated T cells. These results suggest that defective T cell PKCdelta activation may contribute to the development of idiopathic and hydralazine-induced lupus through effects on T cell DNA methylation.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the production of autoantibodies against a host of nuclear antigens. The pathogenesis of lupus is incompletely understood. Environmental factors may play a role via altering DNA methylation, a mechanism regulating gene expression. In lupus, genes including CD11a and CD70 are overexpressed in T cells as a result of promoter hypomethylation. T-cell DNA methyltransferase expression is regulated in part by the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway. In this study, we investigate the effects of decreased ERK pathway signaling in T cells using transgenic animals. We generated a transgenic mouse that inducibly expresses a dominant-negative MEK in T cells in the presence of doxycycline. We show that decreased ERK pathway signaling in T cells results in decreased expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 and overexpression of the methylation-sensitive genes CD11a and CD70, similar to T cells in human lupus. Our transgenic animal model also develops anti-dsDNA antibodies. Interestingly, microarray expression assays revealed overexpression of several interferon-regulated genes in the spleen similar to peripheral blood cells of lupus patients. This model supports the contention that ERK pathway signaling defects in T cells contribute to the development of autoimmunity.

Women develop lupus more frequently than men and the reason remains incompletely understood. Evidence that men with Klinefelter’s Syndrome (XXY) develop lupus at approximately the same rate as women suggests that a second X chromosome contributes. However, since the second X is normally inactivated, how it predisposes to lupus is unclear. DNA methylation contributes to the silencing of one X chromosome in women, and CD4+ T cell DNA demethylation contributes to the development of lupus-like autoimmunity. This suggests that demethylation of genes on the inactive X may predispose women to lupus, and this hypothesis is supported by a report that CD40LG, an immune gene encoded on the X chromosome, demethylates and is overexpressed in T cells from women but not men with lupus. Overexpression of other immune genes on the inactive X may also predispose women to this disease. We therefore compared mRNA and miRNA expression profiles in experimentally demethylated T cells from women and men as well as in T cells from women and men with lupus. T cells from healthy men and women were treated with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine, then X-linked mRNAs were surveyed with oligonucleotide arrays, and X-linked miRNA’s surveyed with PCR arrays. CD40LG, CXCR3, OGT, miR-98, let-7f-2*, miR 188-3p, miR-421 and miR-503 were among the genes overexpressed in women relative to men. MiRNA target prediction analyses identified CBL, which downregulates T cell receptor signaling and is decreased in lupus T cells, as a gene targeted by miR-188-3p and miR-98. Transfection with miR-98 and miR-188-3p suppressed CBL expression. The same mRNA and miRNA transcripts were also demethylated and overexpressed in CD4+ T cells from women relative to men with active lupus. Together these results further support a role for X chromosome demethylation in the female predisposition to lupus.

Thyroid hormones play critical roles in differentiation, growth and metabolism, but their participation in immune system regulation has not been completely elucidated. Modulation of in vivo thyroid status was used to carry out an integrative analysis of the role of the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis in T and B lymphocyte activity. The participation of the protein kinase C (PKC) signaling pathway and the release of some cytokines upon antigenic stimulation were analyzed. Lymphocytes from hyperthyroid mice displayed higher Tand B-cell mitogen-induced proliferation, and those from hypothyroid mice displayed lower T-and B-cell mitogeninduced proliferation, compared with euthyroid animals. Reversion of hypothyroid state by triiodothyronine (T3) administration recovered the proliferative responses. No differences were found in lymphoid subset balance. Both total PKC content and mitogen-induced PKC translocation were higher in T and B cells from hyperthyroid mice, and lower in cells from hypothyroid mice, compared with controls. Levels of thyroid-stimulating (TSH) and TSHreleasing (TRH) hormones were not directly related to lymphocyte proliferative responses. After immunization with sheep red blood cells (SRBCs) and re-stimulation, in vitro spleen cells from hyper-or hypothyroid mice showed, respectively, increased or decreased production of interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-cytokines. Additionally, an increase in IL-6 and IFN-levels was found in hyperthyroid cells after in vivo injection and in vitro re-stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS).Our results show for the first time a thyroid hormonemediated regulation of PKC content and of cytokine production in lymphocytes; this regulation could be involved in the altered responsiveness to mitogen-induced proliferation of T and B cells. The results also confirm the important role that these hormones play in regulating lymphocyte reactivity.

Angiotensin-(1-7) [Ang-(1-7)] reportedly potentiates hypotensive responses to bradykinin. We studied whether increases in circulating bradykinin would alter responses to Ang-(1-7). In rats anesthetized with thiobutabarbital, bradykinin infusion (5 microg/kg per minute I.A.) resulted in a rapid decrease in mean arterial pressure (MAP) of about 20 mm Hg (P<.01, n=9), although MAP slowly increased by 10 mm Hg after 15 minutes. When Ang-(1-7) (20, 80, and 380 nmol per rat I.A.) was given during bradykinin infusion, it elicited hypotension at 80 and 380 nmol (deltaMAP: -15+/-2.7 and -21+/-3.3 mmHg, respectively; P<.001); this hypotension was not affected by the angiotensin type 1 antagonist L-158,809 (200 microg/kg I.A.), the angiotensin type 2 antagonist PD 123319 (10 mg/kg I.A.), saralasin, or sarthran (10 microg/kg per minute). The bradykinin type 2 receptor antagonist icatibant (30 microg per rat) eliminated the hypotensive responses to Ang-(1-7), which now increased MAP at all doses tested (P<.005). Thus in the presence of bradykinin, Ang-(1-7) induces hypotensive responses that are blocked by icatibant and unaffected by angiotensin receptor antagonists. Ang-(1-7) given to saline-infused rats elicited hypertensive responses at all doses (deltaMAP: 6.4+/-1.5, 12+/-1.6, and 16.3+/-2.7 mmHg, respectively; P<.01); these responses were abolished by L-158,809 and sarthran. In rats pretreated with saralasin, Ang-(1-7) induced hypotension at 80 and 380 nmol (deltaMAP: -7.7+/-2.3 and -9.5+/-2.7, respectively; P<.05), whereas icatibant abolished this response. Thus in the rat, Ang-(1-7) can decrease blood pressure by a mechanism involving the bradykinin type 2 receptor and participates with bradykinin in a vasodepressor pathway that may serve a counterregulatory role, modulating the vasoconstrictor effects of Ang II.