IRF8 is a key regulator of innate immunity receptor signaling and plays diverse functions in the development of hematopoietic cells. The effects of IRF8 on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are still unknown. Here, it is demonstrated that IRF8 deficiency results in a decreased number of long-term HSCs (LT-HSCs) in mice. However, the repopulation capacity of individual HSCs is significantly increased. Transcriptomic analysis shows that IFN-γ and IFN-α signaling is downregulated in IRF8-deficient HSCs, while their response to proinflammatory cytokines is unchanged ex vivo. Further tests show that Irf8-/- HSCs can not respond to CpG, an agonist of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) in mice, while long-term CpG stimulation increases wild-type HSC abundance and decreases their bone marrow colony-forming capacity. Mechanistically, as the primary producer of proinflammatory cytokines in response to CpG stimulation, dendritic cells has a blocked TLR9 signaling due to developmental defect in Irf8-/- mice. Macrophages remain functionally intact but severely reduce in Irf8-/- mice. In NK cells, IRF8 directly regulates the expression of Tlr9 and its deficiency leads to no increased IFNγ production upon CpG stimulation. These results indicate that IRF8 regulates HSCs, at least in part, through controlling TLR9 signaling in diverse innate immune cells.
Keywords: IRF8; TLR9; hematopoietic stem cells; natural killer cells; proinflammatory cytokines.
© 2021 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.