Absence of STAT1 Signaling in Host Hematopoietic Cells Leads to Enhanced Gvhd Induction and Involves Increased Expression of MHC Class II and Reduced PD-L1 Expression on Dendritic Cells,

Abstract 4026

Interferon-g/STAT1 signaling plays a critical role in regulating dendritic cell activation and function. Blockade of IFN-g signaling leads to reduced DC activation and impaired anti-tumor and acquired adaptive immunity. We recently reported that lack of IFN-g/STAT1 in donor lymphocytes leads to reduced GVHD induction in both MHC- and mHA-mismatched mouse BMT models. In this study, we addressed the role of host STAT1 in the regulation of GVHD. Wildtype or STAT1-deficient 129 mice (H^2b) underwent allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) following lethal irradiation (1044 rad). GVHD was induced using either BALB/c or B6 donor spleen cells. We unexpectedly observed that absence of STAT1 in recipient mice led to increased GVHD-associated mortality in both MHC-mismatched (MST 5 vs. 8, p=0.01) and mHA-mismatched (MST 11 vs. 23, p<0.01) BMT settings. The enhanced GVHD induction was found to be associated with increased activation (expression of CD69 and CD25) and allo-antigen driven proliferation of donor CD4 and CD8 T cells as determined by CFSE-dilution. As host APCs have been reported to being crucial for induction of GVHD, we phenotypically and functionally characterized STAT1 deficient DCs. Our studies revealed that STAT1-deficient bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) which were maturated in the presence of LPS showed significantly increased MHC class II, CD86, CD80 and CD40 expression compared with wildtype BMDCs. Furthermore, STAT1-deficient BMDC showed significantly increased direct allo-stimulatory capacity resulting in increased responder cell proliferation as determined by standard MLR assays using 3H-Thymidine uptake assays as well as CFSE-dilution studies. STAT1^−/− BMDCs significantly promoted CD44+CD62L- expression in responder CD4 and CD8 T cells compared to wild type BMDCs (all p<0.001). The increased MHC II expression in STAT1-deficient DC was further confirmed in host CD11b⁺ and CD11c⁺ cells following GVHD induction in vivo. To determine whether non-hematopoietic cells in STAT1^−/− host contribute to the increased GVHD induction, we created radiation chimeras in which STAT1 was only deficient in the hematopoietic compartment by transplanting 129.STAT1^−/− BMC into 129.STAT1^+/+ recipients following lethal irradiation. 120 days later GVHD was induced using fully MHC-mismatched BALB/c donor splenocytes. Similar to STAT1-deficient recipients STAT1−/− ®WT chimeras showed enhanced GVHD induction compared to STAT1+/+®WT chimeras (MST 11 vs. 5, p<0.05).

To determine the mechanism underlying the enhanced expansion of donor T cells in response to stimulation with STAT1-deficient APC, we hypothesized that STAT-deficiency may impair expression of the T cell inhibitory molecules Programed Cell Death-Ligand1 or-2 (PD-L1,-L2) on APC. We therefore studied the expression of PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression on wildtype and STAT1-deficient DC. Indeed, were able to demonstrate that absence of STAT1 significantly suppressed PD-L1 expression on BMDCs upon in vitro LPS stimulation (Mean Fluorescence Intensity 167.2± 15.9 vs. 532.5±7.6, p<0.001) and also in vivo tested on day+ 6 post-BMT in the mHA-mismatched setting. In line with these results using in vitro stimulation we could demonstrate significantly reduced Activation Induced Cell Death (AICD) in activated B6.SJL CD69⁺ CD4 and CD8 cells stimulated with 129.STAT1^−/− BMDCs compared to cells stimulated with 129.STAT1^+/+ BMDCs (10.6±1.5% vs. 28.2±1.9 % for CD4; 13.0±0.7% vs. 30.5±1.1% for CD8 respectively, p<0.001 for all). Importantly, blocking IFN-g with neutralizing antibodies significantly increased MHC class II, CD86 expression and reduced reduced PD-L1 expression on BMDCs upon LPS stimulation. In summary, our data suggest two mechanisms how the absence of STAT1 signaling in host hematopoietic cells may promote the development of GVHD: First, increased expression of MHC II and co-stimulatory molecule in STAT1-deficient APC may lead to enhanced activation and proliferation of donor lymphocytes. Second, absence of STAT1 in maturated host DC inhibits PD-L1 expression thus leading to reduced AICD of activated donor lymphocytes. These findings suggest that STAT1-signaling modulates host APC function and shapes the GVH-response by causing increased allo-antigen-specific donor T cell activation, survival and proliferation.