Open AccessLeukocyte Beta-Catenin Expression Is Disturbed in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Author(s) -
Jacob J. Orme,
Yong Du,
Kamala Vanarsa,
Tianfu Wu,
Anne B. Satterthwaite,
Chandra Mohan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0161682
Subject(s) - systemic lupus erythematosus , immunology , wnt signaling pathway , autoimmunity , catenin , beta catenin , phenotype , biology , transcription factor , myeloid , cancer research , immune system , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , signal transduction , genetics , gene , disease
Wnt/β-catenin signaling is relatively understudied in immunity and autoimmunity. β-catenin blocks inflammatory mediators and favors tolerogenic dendritic cell (DC) phenotypes. We show here that leukocytes from lupus-prone mice and SLE patients express diminished β-catenin transcriptional activity, particularly in myeloid cells, although other leukocytes revealed similar trends. Serum levels of DKK-1, an inhibitor under transcriptional control of Wnt/β-catenin, were also decreased in lupus-prone mice. Surprisingly, however, preemptive deletion of β-catenin from macrophages appears to have no effect on lupus development, even in mice with varying genetic loads for lupus. Although myeloid-specific loss of β-catenin does not seem to be important for lupus development, the potential role of this transcription factor in other leukocytes and renal cells remain to be elucidated.