Programmed cell death (PCD) including apoptosis and necrosis are fundamental biological processes that are essential during embryonic development and for homeostasis in somatic tissues. DRs can signal apoptotic cell death when engaged by their cognate ligands
8. This extrinsic death pathway requires the adaptor protein FADD that couples the signal generated by DRs to the apical caspase 8
3,9-10. The resulting activation of caspase 8 triggers a battery of downstream caspases, leading to apoptosis. Recently, DRs were shown to induce necrosis-like cell death in the presence of caspase inhibitors
11-12. DR-induced necrosis is blocked in cells lacking the protein serine/threonine kinases RIP1 and RIP3
11-15. FADD and RIP1 play indispensable roles in development, as
FADD−/− mice die during midgestation stages
4-5, and
RIP1−/− mice die at birth
16. Whereas the developmental defect in
RIP1−/− mice is presumably due in part to defective NF-κB activation and increased cell death
17, the mechanism that underlies the developmental defect of
FADD−/− mice has remained elusive.
Developmental retardation of
FADD−/− mouse is apparent at embryonic day (E)11.5 to 13.5 (
Fig. S1a-b). Histological analysis revealed extensive necrotic cell death and cell loss in
FADD−/− embryos (). Absence of FADD sensitizes human Jurkat T lymphoma cells to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced necrosis
11-12. Furthermore,
FADD−/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were hypersensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced necrosis
18. In contrast, necrosis induced by ROS was blocked in
RIP1−/− MEF cells. Examination of wild type (
WT) E12.5 embryos showed that RIP1 was expressed at low levels while RIP3 was readily detected in multiple tissues including the nervous system, heart and lung (Fig. and
S2). Interestingly, RIP1 expression is highly elevated in
FADD−/− embryos (). Furthermore, punctate RIP3 staining was observed in cells of
FADD−/− embryos, which is indicative of RIP3 aggregation and activation
14. These results indicate that induction of RIP1 expression might play a role in the necrosis observed in
FADD−/− embryos.
To investigate a potential
in vivo molecular interplay between FADD- and RIP1-mediated signaling, we crossed the RIP1 knockout alleles into
FADD−/− mice. Strikingly,
FADD−/−RIP1−/− double knockout (
DKO) embryos were detected at E14.5 at the expected Mendelian frequencies (, Fig. and
S1c-f). In sharp contrast to the highly deformed E14.5
FADD−/− embryos, E14.5
DKO embryos were indistinguishable from wild type control embryos ().
DKO embryos of normal morphology were also found at later gestation stages E15.5, E16.5, E17.5 and E18.5 at the expected Mendelian frequencies (
Fig. S1c and ). Importantly, live
DKO neonates were also detected at birth (
Fig. S1d). No
FADD−/− embryos were detected at E15.5 or later stages. Histological examination did not reveal obvious defects in
RIP1−/− and
DKO E18.5 embryos (
Fig. S3). Postnatal monitoring was performed to determine the survival of
DKO mice. Among the 104 postnatal mice analyzed (>0 day, ), 30 died within 4 days after birth, which contain 6
DKO and 19
RIP1−/− genotypes. No death was observed after postnatal day 4 and
DKO mice were not present in the remaining 74 mice that survive beyond 3 weeks (). These results demonstrate that RIP1 deficiency fully restore embryonic development of
FADD−/− mice. However, loss of FADD does not prevent neonatal lethality of
RIP1−/− mice. ROS is an important effector mechanism for necrotic cell death.
FADD−/− MEFs were hypersensitive to ROS-induced death (
Fig. S4a-b). In contrast,
RIP1−/− MEFs were highly resistant to ROS-induced necrosis
18. Addition of the RIP1-specific inhibitor necrostatin-1 (Nec-1)
19 greatly reduced ROS-hypersensitivity in
FADD−/− MEFs (
Fig. S4a-b). Importantly,
DKO MEFs were resistant to ROS-induced death. Collectively, these results indicate that FADD deficiency primes embryonic cells to ROS- and RIP1-dependent necrosis, which might cause embryonic lethality.
| Table 1Genetic analysis of FADD and RIP1 deficiency in mice |
While important at early hematopoietic stages
20, FADD plays a minor role in post lineage commitment lymphopoiesis
4,6-7. Although
RIP1−/− neonates contain normal thymocyte numbers
16,
RIP1−/− fetal liver cells failed to reconstitute the peripheral T cell compartment
17. The rescue of embryonic development in
DKO mice prompted us to examine whether a similar FADD-RIP1 interaction might regulate lymphocyte development. To this end, we adoptively transferred fetal liver cells containing hematopoietic progenitor cells into immunodeficient NSG recipient mice. In agreement with previous results
17, NSG chimeras reconstituted with
RIP1−/− fetal liver cells contained dramatically reduced CD4
+CD8
+ double positive immature and CD4
+ or CD8
+ single positive mature thymocytes (). In contrast, the thymic population profile of
DKO fetal liver cell chimeras was similar to that of the wild type control thymus (). Reconstitution of the peripheral lymphoid compartment by
DKO fetal liver cells was apparent, as indicated by the spleen sizes of the recipients of
DKO fetal liver cells, which was similar to the size of the control spleens receiving wild type fetal liver cells (
Fig. S5a). In contrast, the spleen of
RIP1−/− chimeras was smaller than that of wild type or
DKO chimeras. Flow cytometric analyses showed that
RIP1−/− chimeras contained few CD3
+ T cells in the periphery (Fig. and
S5b-c). In contrast,
DKO chimeras contained significantly higher numbers of T cells in the spleen, lymph nodes, and blood (Fig. and
S5b-c). Similarly, FADD deficiency partially rescued
RIP1−/− B cell development (
Fig. S5c).
RIP1−/− thymocytes were readily killed by treatments with anti-Fas antibodies or TNF (). Interestingly,
DKO thymocytes were highly resistant to these death stimuli. Although FADD deficiency fully reversed the hypersensitivity to Fas- and TNFα-induced killing, it only partially corrected the NF-κB activation defect in
RIP1−/− T cells, B cells and MEFs (). These results suggest that the partial rescue of lymphocyte development in the
DKO chimeras is due to inhibition of FADD-mediated apoptosis rather than rescue of NF-κB activation.
Although T cell-specific deletion of FADD had no effect on thymic development, the resulting mature
FADD−/− T cells were highly defective in TCR-induced proliferation
6 (). When compared to
FADD−/− and
WT controls,
DKO T cells stimulated through the TCR/CD28 exhibited a remarkable rescue in their proliferative responses ( and
Table S1a). When transferred to
TCRαβ−/− hosts,
DKO T cells were functionally competent to expand and produce IFNγ in response to challenge with Pichinde virus (PV) (). Acute CD8
+ T cell responses to the immunodominant epitope NP38 and subdominant epitope NP205 were similar between
WT and
DKO donor cells (). Moreover, challenge of wild type hosts adoptively transferred with
DKO lymphocytes with lymphocytic choriomenigitis virus (LCMV) showed that the
DKO T cells could generate a productive anti-viral response to the immunodominant epitope NP396 (
Fig. S6a). Collectively, these results indicate that RIP1-dependent necrosis underlies the defective proliferation in
FADD−/− T cells and that inactivation of RIP1 restores the proliferative capacity of
FADD−/− T cells.
Although FADD does not play a significant role in BCR- or CD40-induced proliferation responses, it is required for TLR3 and TLR4 signaling in B cells
7. Consistent with these observations,
WT, RIP1−/−,
FADD−/− and
DKO B cells responded similarly to stimulation with anti-IgM or anti-CD40 antibodies (
Fig. S6b and data not shown). In contrast to the rescue of T cell proliferation,
DKO B cells remained defective in proliferative responses to the TLR3 and TLR4 agonists poly IC and LPS, respectively (Fig. ,
S6c and
Table S1b). The differential effect of RIP1 deletion on
FADD−/− T and B cell proliferation was confirmed with the RIP1-specific inhibitor Nec-1 (
Fig. S6d-e). Although caspase inhibition did hamper LPS-induced B cell proliferation (
Fig. S7a-b), RIP1 cleavage, which inactivates the pro-necrotic activity of RIP1, was only observed in TCR-treated T cells, but not LPS-induced B cells or ROS-treated MEFs (
Fig. S8a-c). Therefore, the FADD-RIP1 axis is preferentially required for controlling proliferation in T cells, but not in B cells.
The current study demonstrates that absence of RIP1 restored normal embryogenesis of
FADD−/− mice, and FADD deficiency partially corrects the developmental defect in
RIP1−/− T cells. This finding provides compelling genetic evidence that a critical
in vivo role for FADD during embryogenesis is to inhibit RIP1-mediated necrosis. In T cells, RIP1 is required to help suppress FADD-mediated apoptosis. Interestingly,
caspase 8−/− mice exhibited embryonic and T cell defects similar to that of
FADD−/− mice
4-5,21. Moreover, Nec-1 rescued the proliferative defect of
caspase 8−/− and
FADD−/− T cells
22-23. Hence, FADD and caspase 8 likely act in concert to keep RIP1-mediated necrosis in check by cleavage and inactivation of RIP1. Such regulatory mechanism is crucial to ensure proper embryogenesis and to prevent abortive expansion of T cells during immune responses. Our results also reveal an unexpected role for RIP1 to keep FADD-mediated apoptosis at bay during T cell development. This regulation is not entirely dependent on RIP1-mediated activation of the NF-κB pathways, unlike that proposed previously
16-17. The reduced NF-κB activation had no major effect on
DKO T cell proliferations. In addition to lymphocytes, impairment of the NF-κB pathway is also present in
RIP1−/− and
DKO MEFs and likely other cell types, which might lead to postnatal lethality as seen in
RIP1−/− and
DKO mice. In summary, our results reveal a complex functional interaction between FADD and RIP1 that is context- and cell type-dependent.
Methods summaryHeterozygous
FADD+/− mutant mice have been described
4. Heterozygous
RIP1+/− mutant mice
16 were provided by Dr. M. Kelliher and crossed into
FADD+/− mice. Timed pregnancy was set up with the resulting
FADD+/−RIP1+/− mouse intercrosses. Embryos were isolated and genotyped by PCR using tissue genomic DNA templates and confirmed by western blots. Fetal liver cells were isolated from E14.5 embryos and adoptively transferred into irradiated (200 RAD) NSG (NOD.Cg-
Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ) mice purchased from The Jackson Laboratory. All animal studies were approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees. Ten to 12 weeks post transfer, cells were isolated from the indicated organs and were analyzed by flow cytometry. T cells and B cells were purified from the spleen and lymph nodes by high-speed sorting and proliferative responses were analyzed as described previously
6-7.
FADD−/− mutant T cells and B cells were isolated by sorting from T cell-specific and B cell-specific
FADD−/− mice as described previously
6-7. Western blotting was performed according to standard protocols. For embryonic cell death assays, primary MEFs were prepared following the NIH 3T3 protocol.
FADD−/− MEFs were prepared from E8.5 embryos and
DKO MEFs from E14.5MEFs. MEF cells were cultured in complete DMEM to 80% confluence, and treated with 0.5 mM H
2O
2 with or without Nec-1 (50 μM) for 12 h, and cell death was determined by propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry. Images were taken by using a Nikon inverted light microscope. For virus infections, after adoptive transfer of lymphocytes, mice were challenged with 5 × 10
4 pfu of LCMV or 1 × 10
7 pfu of PV. Peptide specific CD8 T cell responses were measured 8 days after infection by intracellular IFNγ staining.