Recently, the inhibition of Th17 differentiation by invariant NKT cells was reported using the 2D2 autoimmune encephalitis model 26. However, the mechanism through which the NKT cells regulated Th17 differentiation remains unclear. In this study, we further investigated the direct regulatory role of CD1d-dependent invariant check details NKT cells on CD4+ Th differentiation using an in vitro co-culture system and an in vivo model of organ-specific autoimmune disease. Invariant NKT cells inhibited Th1 differentiation in

an IL-4-dependent manner and suppressed Th17 differentiation predominantly through a contact-dependent manner in co-culture experiments. More severe uveitis and an increased number of IL-17-producing

CD4+ T cells were observed in invariant NKT cell-deficient (CD1d−/− or Jα18−/−) mice compared with WT mice, and the transfer of NKT cells from WT, IL-4−/−, IL-10−/−, or IFN-γ−/− mice into CD1d−/− mice significantly reversed the disease phenotype. Therefore, invariant NKT cells suppressed the progression of uveitis through the cytokine-independent inhibition of Th17 differentiation. Although the potential regulatory functions of NKT cells in organ-specific autoimmune diseases have been described 18, 19, definitive evidence supporting the direct effect of NKT cells on pathogenic effector cells is lacking. We analyzed populations of NKT cells by staining with anti-TCR antibody and CD1d:α-galactosylceramide

(α-GalCer) dimer. Although hepatic mononuclear cells (HMNC) from WT C57BL/6 (B6) contained about 20% αβTCR+CD1d:α-GalCer+ cells, only 0.12 Alectinib and 0.2% of HMNC were αβTCR+CD1d:α -GalCer+ cells from CD1d−/− and Ja18−/− mice, respectively MEK inhibitor (Supporting Information Fig. 1). To evaluate the impact of NKT cells on the regulation of CD4+ T-cell differentiation, we used in vitro co-culture experiments in which lymph node cells from NK1.1+-depleted OT-II OVA-specific TCR transgenic mice were stimulated with OVA peptide for 3 days in the presence of FACS-purified NK1.1+αβTCR+ T cells (>98% purity) isolated from HMNC from WT B6, CD1d−/−, or Jα18−/− mice. α-GalCer-stimulated NKT cells from WT, but not CD1d−/− or Jα18−/− mice, dramatically reduced the differentiation of OT-II CD4+ T cells into Th17 cells by more than 80% in the presence of Th17-promoting cytokines (10 ng/mL IL-6 and 5 ng/mL TGF-β) (Fig. 1A). Activated WT NKT cells also decreased the proportion of IFN-γ-producing CD4+ T cells by 60% (Fig. 1B). Th1 and Th17 differentiation was not inhibited with NKT cells when they were not stimulated with α-GalCer (Supporting Information Fig. 2). Cellular proliferation and cytokine production were simultaneously evaluated using CFSE-labeled OT-II CD4+ T cells. CD4+ T-cell proliferation was only minimally affected by the presence of α-GalCer-activated NKT cells under either differentiation condition (Fig.