Immunity 2020 Nov;53(5):1015-1032.e8
Laboratory of Innate Immunity, Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203 Berlin, Germany; Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Anna-Louisa-Karsch Strasse 2, 10117 Berlin, Germany; Mucosal and Developmental Immunology, Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (DRFZ), an institute of the Leibniz Association, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address:
Solitary intestinal lymphoid tissues such as cryptopatches (CPs) and isolated lymphoid follicles (ILFs) constitute steady-state activation hubs containing group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) that continuously produce interleukin (IL)-22. The outer surface of CPs and ILFs is demarcated by a poorly characterized population of CD11c cells. Using genome-wide single-cell transcriptional profiling of intestinal mononuclear phagocytes and multidimensional flow cytometry, we found that CP- and ILF-associated CD11c cells were a transcriptionally distinct subset of intestinal cDCs, which we term CIA-DCs. CIA-DCs required programming by CP- and ILF-resident CCR6 ILC3 via lymphotoxin-β receptor signaling in cDCs. CIA-DCs differentially expressed genes associated with immunoregulation and were the major cellular source of IL-22 binding protein (IL-22BP) at steady state. Mice lacking CIA-DC-derived IL-22BP exhibited diminished expression of epithelial lipid transporters, reduced lipid resorption, and changes in body fat homeostasis. Our findings provide insight into the design principles of an immunoregulatory checkpoint controlling nutrient absorption.