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The female-biased factor VGLL3 drives cutaneous and systemic autoimmunity
Allison C. Billi, … , J. Michelle Kahlenberg, Johann E. Gudjonsson
Allison C. Billi, … , J. Michelle Kahlenberg, Johann E. Gudjonsson
Published April 18, 2019
Citation Information: JCI Insight. 2019;4(8):e127291. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.127291.
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Research Article Dermatology

The female-biased factor VGLL3 drives cutaneous and systemic autoimmunity

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Abstract

Autoimmune disease is 4 times more common in women than men. This bias is largely unexplained. Female skin is “autoimmunity prone,” showing upregulation of many proinflammatory genes, even in healthy women. We previously identified VGLL3 as a putative transcription cofactor enriched in female skin. Here, we demonstrate that skin-directed overexpression of murine VGLL3 causes a severe lupus-like rash and systemic autoimmune disease that involves B cell expansion, autoantibody production, immune complex deposition, and end-organ damage. Excess epidermal VGLL3 drives a proinflammatory gene expression program that overlaps with both female skin and cutaneous lupus. This includes increased B cell–activating factor (BAFF), the only current biologic target in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); IFN-κ, a key inflammatory mediator in cutaneous lupus; and CXCL13, a biomarker of early-onset SLE and renal involvement. Our results demonstrate that skin-targeted overexpression of the female-biased factor VGLL3 is sufficient to drive cutaneous and systemic autoimmune disease that is strikingly similar to SLE. This work strongly implicates VGLL3 as a pivotal orchestrator of sex-biased autoimmunity.

Authors

Allison C. Billi, Mehrnaz Gharaee-Kermani, Joseph Fullmer, Lam C. Tsoi, Brett D. Hill, Dennis Gruszka, Jessica Ludwig, Xianying Xing, Shannon Estadt, Sonya J. Wolf, Syed Monem Rizvi, Celine C. Berthier, Jeffrey B. Hodgin, Maria A. Beamer, Mrinal K. Sarkar, Yun Liang, Ranjitha Uppala, Shuai Shao, Chang Zeng, Paul W. Harms, Monique E. Verhaegen, John J. Voorhees, Fei Wen, Nicole L. Ward, Andrzej A. Dlugosz, J. Michelle Kahlenberg, Johann E. Gudjonsson

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Figure 1

Overexpression of VGLL3 in the epidermis produces a skin phenotype with gross and histologic features of cutaneous lupus.

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Overexpression of VGLL3 in the epidermis produces a skin phenotype with ...
(A) Transgenic (TG) cassette. The bovine keratin 5 (K5) promoter drives polycistronic expression of the full-length mouse VGLL3 and mCherry red fluorescent protein linked by an internal ribosome entry site (IRES). β-glob, rabbit β-globin intronic sequence; pA, polyadenylation signal. (B) Detection of VGLL3 protein (red) by immunofluorescence (IF) in skin of female WT and TG mice. Scale bar: 20 μm. Images are representative of sections from 3 WT and 3 TG animals examined. (C) Left: WT mouse compared with age-matched TG mouse with lupus-like skin rash. Right: Bright-field and fluorescence images of WT and lesional TG tail skin. Scale bar: 2 mm. (D) H&E staining of WT and TG volar skin sections, demonstrating epidermal hyperplasia, basal cell vacuolization, apoptotic keratinocytes (arrowhead, magnified on inset), and dermal inflammatory infiltrate. Scale bar: 20 μm. (E) TUNEL (red) staining of WT and TG tail skin sections. Scale bar: 50 μm. (F) Periodic acid–Schiff staining of WT and TG dorsal skin sections. Arrowheads indicate subtle basement membrane thickening. Scale bar: 20 μm. (G) Detection of IgG and complement factor C3 by IF in WT and TG nonlesional neck skin. Scale bar: 50 μm. In E–G, images are representative of sections from 3 WT and 3 TG animals examined.

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