LncRNA lncLy6C induced by microbiota metabolite butyrate promotes differentiation of Ly6Chigh to Ly6Cint/neg macrophages through lncLy6C/C/EBPβ/Nr4A1 axis

• Published in: Cell discovery Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 87
• Main Authors: Gao, Yunhuan, Zhou, Jiang, Qi, Houbao, Wei, Jianmei, Yang, Yazheng, Yue, Jianmei, Liu, Xinqi, Zhang, Yuan, Yang, Rongcun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer Nature B.V 24.11.2020; Springer Singapore
• Subjects: Cell differentiation; Inflammation; Intestinal microflora; Lysine; Macrophages; Metabolites; Microbiota; Monocytes; Transcription factors
• ISSN: 2056-5968; 2056-5968
• DOI: 10.1038/s41421-020-00211-8

Abstract Macrophages are mainly divided into two populations, which play a different role in physiological and pathological conditions. The differentiation of these cells may be regulated by transcription factors. However, it is unclear how to modulate these transcription factors to affect differentiation of these cells. Here, we found that lncLy6C , a novel ultraconserved lncRNA, promotes differentiation of Ly6C high inflammatory monocytes into Ly6C low/neg resident macrophages. We demonstrate that gut microbiota metabolites butyrate upregulates the expression of lncLy6C . LncLy6C deficient mice had markedly increased Ly6C high pro-inflammatory monocytes and reduced Ly6C neg resident macrophages. LncLy6C not only bound with transcription factor C/EBPβ but also bound with multiple lysine methyltransferases of H3K4me3 to specifically promote the enrichment of C/EBPβ and H3K4me3 marks on the promoter region of Nr4A1, which can promote Ly6C high into Ly6C neg macrophages. As a result, lncLy6C causes the upregulation of Nr4A1 to promote Ly6C high inflammatory monocytes to differentiate into Ly6C int/neg resident macrophages.