Intestinal non-canonical NFκB signaling shapes the local and systemic immune response

Microfold cells (M-cells) are specialized cells of the intestine that sample luminal microbiota and dietary antigens to educate the immune cells of the intestinal lymphoid follicles. The function of M-cells in systemic inflammatory responses are still unclear. Here we show that epithelial non-canonical NFkB signaling mediated by NFkB-inducing kinase (NIK) is highly active in intestinal lymphoid follicles, and is required for M-cell maintenance. Intestinal NIK signaling modulates M-cell differentiation and elicits both local and systemic IL-17A and IgA production. Importantly, intestinal NIK signaling is active in mouse models of colitis and patients with inflammatory bowel diseases; meanwhile, constitutive NIK signaling increases the susceptibility to inflammatory injury by inducing ectopic M-cell differentiation and a chronic increase of IL-17A. Our work thus defines an important function of non-canonical NFkB and M-cells in immune homeostasis, inflammation and polymicrobial sepsis.