Human intestinal stromal cells promote homeostasis in normal mucosa but inflammation in Crohn's disease in a retinoic acid-deficient manner.

ABSTRACT: Intestinal stromal cells (SCs), which synthesize the extracellular matrix that gives the mucosa its structure, are newly appreciated to play a role in mucosal inflammation. Here, we show that human intestinal vimentin⁺CD90⁺smooth muscle actin^- SCs synthesize retinoic acid (RA) at levels equivalent to intestinal epithelial cells, a function in the human intestine previously attributed exclusively to epithelial cells. Crohn's disease SCs (Crohn's SCs), however, synthesized markedly less RA than SCs from healthy intestine (normal SCs). We also show that microbe-stimulated Crohn's SCs, which are more inflammatory than stimulated normal SCs, induced less RA-regulated differentiation of mucosal dendritic cells (DCs) (circulating pre-DCs and monocyte-derived DCs),

SUBMITTER: Smythies LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11530961 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature