Professor Kim Hyuksun's Joint Research Team at Dong-A University Identifies New Immunoregulatory Cell Function Suppressing Inflammatory Skin Diseases

'Discovery of New Immunomodulatory Innate Lymphoid Cell Phenotypes' with Immune Disease Suppression Effects

Joint Research by Prof. Choi Wansu's Team at Konkuk University Published in World-Renowned Journal JCR

Dong-A University (President Lee Hae-woo) announced that the joint research team led by Professor Kim Hyuk-soon from the Department of Biomedical Sciences discovered the cellular phenotype of a novel immunoregulatory cell called regulatory innate lymphoid cell and proposed a cell-based therapeutic mechanism to suppress inflammatory skin diseases using this cell.

From the left, Professor Kim Hyuksun of Dong-A University, Professor Choi Wansu of Konkuk University.

Professor Kim, together with Professor Choi Wan-soo's research team from Konkuk University School of Medicine, published a paper titled “IL-27-induced PD-L1highSca-1+ innate lymphoid cells suppress contact hypersensitivity in an IL-10-dependent manner” in the recent issue of Experimental & Molecular Medicine.

Experimental & Molecular Medicine, published by Nature, has a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 12.8 according to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), placing it among the top 5% of journals in the fields of medicine and biochemistry & molecular biology worldwide.

Professor Kim’s joint research team focused on a specific immunoregulatory function possessed by certain innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), a novel immune cell type, and noted that these cells highly express specific molecules on their surface.

The research team isolated these cells and demonstrated that when administered to animals with inflammatory skin diseases, they secrete the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 (an immunoregulatory protein secreted by immune cells), thereby suppressing inflammatory immune diseases.

Previously, in 2016, the research team was the first in the world to report the existence of innate lymphoid cells capable of secreting the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10.

Through follow-up studies, the team identified that these cells highly express a unique cell surface antigen called ‘PD-L1highSca-1+’ and showed that administering these isolated cells to inflammatory skin disease models controls the function of activated inflammatory cells, resulting in disease suppression.

Additionally, through genetic and molecular analyses, the research team confirmed that immunoregulatory innate lymphoid cells capable of secreting IL-10 are widely distributed in the spleen, lymph nodes, and peripheral tissues. They revealed that as inflammatory skin diseases progress, there is a marked increase of immunoregulatory innate lymphoid cells in the peripheral areas where lesions appear.

According to the research team, the development of these immunoregulatory innate lymphoid cells is induced by signaling of the cytokine IL-27, which is mainly secreted by macrophages and dendritic cells.

Professor Kim stated, “Through this study, we simultaneously identified the activation mechanism of immunoregulatory innate lymphoid cells by IL-27 cytokine, which has dual effects on inflammation and regulation, as well as the unique cellular phenotype of these immunoregulatory innate lymphoid cells. Selective IL-27 cytokine stimulation of isolated immunoregulatory innate lymphoid cells can be utilized to develop innate lymphoid cell-based cell therapies applicable to various inflammatory diseases.”

He added, “We are conducting follow-up research to identify indications such as psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases and aim to develop sustainable therapeutic candidates for chronic and recurrent inflammatory diseases.”

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Young Researcher Support Project and Mid-Career Researcher Support Project. Professor Kim’s team is also participating in the Dong-A University BK21 Future Environment Bio-defense Convergence Project Group.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.