Disruption of Post-thymic tolerance in Skin-Reactive TCR Transgenic Mice through the Interaction of Lymphopenia and Intestinal Microbiota.

Autoimmune diseases often arise from conditions where the immune system is compromised. While lymphopenia-induced proliferation (LIP) is crucial for immune system development and maturation, it is also caused by environmental insult, such as infection and becomes a risk factor for autoimmunity in adults. We used Dsg3H1 TCR Transgenic mice, whose T cells are designed to recognize desmogrein-3, a skin antigen, to explore the impact of lymphopenia on post-thymic tolerance. Dsg3H1 mice are known to delete the most highly autoreactive T cells in thymus, and develop only subtle immune-mediated pathology in a steady state. However, we found that a transient lymphopenia by total body irradiation or cyclophosphamide, results in massive dermatitis in Dsg3H1 mice. The symptoms included expansion and development of self-reactive T cells, their differentiation into CD44 high IL-17 producing helper T cells, and severe neutrophilic inflammation. Repopulation of FOXP3+ T regulatory cells after lymphopenia normally occurred, suggesting escape of skin-reactive conventional T cells from control by regulatory T cell. Furthermore, we found that a depletion of the intestinal microbiota by antibiotics prevents the cyclophosphamide induced dermatitis, indicating roles of commensal intestinal microbiota in LIP and Th17 development in vivo. The current data suggested that post thymic tolerance of Dsg3H1 mice is established on a fragile balance in lymphoreplete immune environment and broken by interplay between lymphopenia and intestinal microbiota. The dynamic phenotypes observed in Dsg3H1 mice prompts a reevaluation of opportunistic lymphopenia together with microbiota as pivotal environmental factors, impacting individuals with genetic predispositions of autoimmune diseases.