Keratinocyte-derived cytokine TSLP promotes growth and metastasis of melanoma by regulating the tumor-associated immune microenvironment.

Fiche publication

Date publication

septembre 2022

Journal

JCI insight

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr DAVIDSON Irwin , Pr LIPSKER Dan , Dr LI Mei

Tous les auteurs :
Yao W, German B, Chraa D, Braud A, Hugel C, Meyer P, Davidson G, Laurette P, Mengus G, Flatter E, Marschall P, Segaud J, Guivarch M, Hener P, Birling MC, Lipsker D, Davidson I, Li M

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36107619

Résumé

Malignant melanoma is a major public health issue displaying frequent resistance to targeted therapy and immunotherapy. A major challenge is to better understand how melanoma cells evade immune elimination and how tumor growth and metastasis is facilitated by tumor microenvironment. Here, we show that expression of the cytokine TSLP by epidermal keratinocytes is induced by cutaneous melanoma in both mice and humans. Using genetically engineered models of melanoma and tumor cell grafting combined with TSLP knockout or overexpression, we defined a crosstalk between melanoma cells, keratinocytes and immune cells in establishing a tumor promoting microenvironment. Keratinocyte-derived TSLP is induced by signal(s) derived from melanoma cells and subsequently acts via immune cells to promote melanoma progression and metastasis. Furthermore, we show that TSLP signals through TSLPR-expressing dendritic cells to play an unrecognized role in promoting GATA3+ Tregs expressing a gene signature including ST2, CCR8, ICOS, PD-1, CTLA-4 and OX40 and exhibiting a potent suppressive activity on CD8+ T cell proliferation and IFNγ production. An analogous population of GATA3-expressing Tregs was also identified in human melanoma tumors. Together, our study provides novel insights into the role of TSLP in programming a pro-tumoral immune microenvironment in cutaneous melanoma.