Journal
NATURE
Volume 594, Issue 7861, Pages 94-+Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03563-7
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Funding
- European Research Council under the European Union [648768]
- Agence Nationnale de la Recherche [ANR-14-CE14-0009-01]
- Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale [ECO201906009090]
- INSERM
- CNRS
- Aix-Marseille University
- Marseille-Immunopole
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [ANR-14-CE14-0009] Funding Source: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
- European Research Council (ERC) [648768] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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This study investigated the role of sensory neurons in promoting the tissue-repair function of macrophages and uncovered the regulatory mechanism of the neuropeptide TAFA4 on macrophage inflammatory responses. TAFA4, produced by a subset of sensory neurons, modulates the inflammatory profile of macrophages and promotes the production of IL-10 after skin damage in mice. This neuroimmune regulatory pathway driven by TAFA4 helps prevent fibrosis and promotes tissue regeneration, presenting new therapeutic perspectives for inflammatory diseases.
Inflammation is a defence response to tissue damage that requires tight regulation in order to prevent impaired healing. Tissue-resident macrophages have a key role in tissue repair(1), but the precise molecular mechanisms that regulate the balance between inflammatory and pro-repair macrophage responses during healing remain poorly understood. Here we demonstrate a major role for sensory neurons in promoting the tissue-repair function of macrophages. In a sunburn-like model of skin damage in mice, the conditional ablation of sensory neurons expressing the G alpha(i)-interacting protein (GINIP) results in defective tissue regeneration and in dermal fibrosis. Elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms revealed a crucial role for the neuropeptide TAFA4, which is produced in the skin by C-low threshold mechanoreceptors-a subset of GINIP(+) neurons. TAFA4 modulates the inflammatory profile of macrophages directly in vitro. In vivo studies in Tafa4-deficient mice revealed that TAFA4 promotes the production of IL-10 by dermal macrophages after UV-induced skin damage. This TAFA4-IL-10 axis also ensures the survival and maintenance of IL-10(+)TIM4(+) dermal macrophages, reducing skin inflammation and promoting tissue regeneration. These results reveal a neuroimmune regulatory pathway driven by the neuropeptide TAFA4 that promotes the anti-inflammatory functions of macrophages and prevents fibrosis after tissue damage, and could lead to new therapeutic perspectives for inflammatory diseases.
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