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Developmental programming of Kupffer cells by maternal obesity causes fatty liver disease in the offspring I

ABSTRACT: Kupffer cells (KCs) are tissue-resident macrophages which colonize the developing liver early during embryogenesis1. Throughout development and adulthood, KCs have distinct core functions that are essential for liver and organismal homeostasis, such as supporting fetal erythropoiesis as well as postnatal erythrocyte recycling and liver metabolism2. KCs acquire their tissue-specific transcriptional signature immediately after colonizing the liver, mature together with the tissue, and adapt to the tissue’s function1,3,4. However, whether perturbation of macrophage core functions during development may contribute to or cause disease at postnatal stages is poorly understood. Here, we utilize a maternal obesity model to disturb KC functions during gestation. We show that offspring born to obese mothers develop fatty liver disease that is accompanied by a local pro-inflammatory response, a phenotype that is augmented if the offspring is kept on control diet after birth. Further, transcriptional analyses reveal that KCs undergo developmental programming through the maternal high-fat diet, which lasts until adulthood. The offspring’s KC developmental programming is irreversible despite the switch to control diet and leads to increased lipid uptake in hepatocytes mediated via paracrine factors stemming from KCs. The transcriptional programming of KCs and the fatty liver disease phenotype are rescued by genetic depletion of hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (Hif1a) in macrophages during gestation. These results demonstrate that macrophages rely on an undisturbed development to fulfil their core functions and support organ homeostasis during adulthood, and establish developmental programming of KCs as a therapeutic strategy for metabolic disorders, such as fatty liver disease.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE237393 | GEO | 2023/08/22

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:There is an evident, unmet need to develop a commercially available in vitro system that can model inflammatory states of the liver and predict immune-mediated hepatotoxicity of drugs and xenobiotics taken under inflamed conditions. Hepatocyte-Kupffer cell co-cultures can model inflammation-mediated hepatotoxicity; however, Kupffer cell (KC) source remains an important bottleneck for the development of such models. Primary human Kupffer cells (PHKCs) are costly, limited in availability and exhibit donor variability. An alternative cell source for KCs has not been reported. Important paradigm shift from the classical dogma of adult blood-circulating monocyte-derived macrophages to intrahepatic precursor/fetal monocyte-derived macrophages has shed new light into the origin of KCs in vivo. Based on these recent findings, we report here, a novel method to generate human KCs in vitro from stem cells (hPSC-KCs) via fetal monocytes. hPSC-KCs expressed macrophage markers, CD11, CD14, CD68, CD163 and CD32 at gene and protein level and exhibited functional properties such as phagocytosis and Interleukin-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor-4alpha production upon activation. Importantly, molecular signature, liver-macrophage specific CLEC-4F expression and cytokines production levels of hPSC-KCs were similar to PHKCs but different from non-liver macrophages. We used an inflammatory liver co-culture model to demonstrate that activated hPSC-KCs, but not non-liver macrophages, were able to recapitulate effects of PHKCs when stimulated with paradigm hepatotoxicants. hPSC-KCs developed in this study offer a renewable human cell source for liver-specific macrophages which can be used to develop in vitro systems for modelling the inflammatory state of the liver. Gene expression profiles of 9 samples were determined using Human Gene 2.0 ST Array. These 9 samples included three replicates each of PHKCs (primary human Kupffer cells), human pluripotent stem cell-dervied Kupffer cells (hPSC-KCs) and non-liver macrophages (NL-Mφ).

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Developmental programming of Kupffer cells by maternal obesity causes fatty liver disease in the offspring I

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