Summary Proper adaptation to environmental perturbations is essential for tissue homeostasis. In the intestine, diverse environmental cues can be sensed by immune cells, which must balance resistance to microorganisms with tolerance, avoiding excess tissue damage. By applying imaging and transcriptional profiling tools, we interrogated how distinct microenvironments in the gut regulate resident macrophages. We discovered that macrophages exhibit a high degree of gene-expression specialization dependent on their proximity to the gut lumen. Lamina propria macrophages (LpMs) preferentially expressed a pro-inflammatory phenotype when compared to muscularis macrophages (MMs), which displayed a tissue-protective phenotype. Upon luminal bacterial infection, MMs further enhanced tissue-protective programs, and this was attributed to swift activation of extrinsic sympathetic neurons innervating the gut muscularis and norepinephrine signaling to β2 adrenergic receptors on MMs. Our results reveal unique intra-tissue macrophage specialization and identify neuro-immune communication between enteric neurons and macrophages that induces rapid tissue-protective responses to distal perturbations.

The gut mucosa hosts large numbers of activated lymphocytes, exposed to stimuli from diet, microbiota and pathogens. Although CD4+ T cells are crucial for defense, intestinal homeostasis precludes exaggerated response towards luminal contents, harmful or not. We investigated mechanisms used by CD4+ T cells to avoid excessive activation within the intestine. Using genetic tools to label and interfere with T cell development transcription factors we show that CD4+ T cells acquired CD8-lineage transcription factor Runx3 while losing CD4-lineage transcription factor ThPOK along with their TH17 differentiation and colitogenic potential, in a transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and retinoic-acid-dependent manner. These results show a remarkable plasticity in the CD4+ T cell lineage that allows chronic exposure to luminal antigens without pathological inflammation.

Axonal degeneration is an important determinant of progressive neurological disability in multiple sclerosis (MS).