Background
CHI3L1 (chitinase 3-like protein 1, human cartilage glycoprotein 39 (HC-gp39), YKL-40, gp38k, chondrex, breast regression protein 39 (BRP-39)) is up-regulated in inflamed tissues in ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and liver cirrhosis, as well as in solid cancers [
1‐
10]. Recently, we have shown that CHI3L1 expression is induced in the CNS of human and non-human primates with lentiviral encephalitis (HIV encephalitis (HIVE) and SIVE) [
11]. The physiological role of CHI3L1 is not known, however, it has been hypothesized to be involved with tissue remodeling during inflammation. In a recent study, BRP-39 (the mouse homologue of human CHI3L1) knockout mice showed a blunted immune response to allergic sensitization (e.g. decreased accumulation of dendritic cells in the lungs, decreased IgE production, increased percentage of apoptotic T-cells and macrophages in the bronchoalveolar lavage) accompanied by reduced peribronchial fibrosis and collagen content [
12].
Previous studies have reported altered expression of CHI3L1 in CNS disorders. Brain tissue homogenate studies have found increased CHI3L1 mRNA in schizophrenia, autism and Alzheimer's disease [
13‐
15]. CSF studies have also found elevated CHI3L1 in patients with purulent meningitis and encephalitis [
16]. In our previous study, longitudinal analysis of CSF of SIV-infected macaques showed that CHI3L1 concentrations in the CSF increased between 2 to 8 weeks before terminal encephalitis. Additionally, CSF levels were found to be 10-fold higher than plasma levels. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that CHI3L1 was associated with astrocytes around microglial nodules in SIVE and occasional activated macrophages/microglia. We have shown that CHI3L1 can inhibit bFGF signaling through FGFR1 and inhibit bFGF-induced axonal branching in hippocampal neurons [
11]. Thus, CHI3L1 potentially has the capacity to modulate neurotrophic factor associated changes in the functionality, plasticity or regenerative ability of neurons.
The current study was carried out to identify the spectrum of CHI3L1 expression in a variety of neurodegenerative and neurological diseases, the cellular origin of CNS CHI3L1, and in the case of brain infarction a comparison between acute and chronic expression. We show that CHI3L1 is elevated in CSF from patients with MS and to a lesser extent with aging. CHI3L1 transcription is induced in reactive astrocytes and is associated with local neuroinflammation in acute and chronic diseases.
Methods
Human specimens
Ten de-identified CSF samples from each of AD, MS, ALS, stroke and normal control patients were obtained from the Human Brain and Spinal Fluid Resource Center (UCLA, CA) and the Center for ALS Research at the University of Pittsburgh. Cortical tissue samples from three cases of AD and schizophrenia, two cases of infarct and Pick's disease and one case of MS and ALS were obtained from the Human Brain and Spinal Fluid Resource Center (UCLA, CA) and used for ISH and immunohistochemical analyses. All human studies were approved by the corresponding institutional review boards.
Pigtailed macaque tissues
Previously banked brains from four pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) infected with SIVDeltaB670 viral swarm (SIVdB670) that developed encephalitis and three macaques that did not develop encephalitis were used for in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry.
In situ hybridization
Sense and antisense CHI3L1 DNA templates containing the T7 promoter were generated by PCR from the pUC57 vector (GenScript, Piscataway, NJ) containing the full length YKL40 cDNA (NCBI Reference Sequence: NM_001276.2). 35S-labeled RNA probes were generated using MAXIscript in vitro transcription kit (Ambion, Austin, TX). After removal of paraffin, cortical tissue sections from patients with MS, AD, Pick's disease, ALS, stroke and schizophrenia and SIV-infected pigtailed macaques were processed for in situ hybridization (ISH) and then for immunohistochemistry. For ISH, tissue sections were microwave oven treated and then incubated in hybridization buffer (1× HYB buffer, 0.6 M NaCl, 10% dextran, 50 μg/ml tRNA, 0.1 M DTT) containing radiolabeled CHI3L1 probe (50,000 cpm/μl) in 50°C over night. The following day the tissue sections were washed and processed for immunofluorescence. Tissue sections were exposed to emulsion (Eastman Kodak company, Rochester, NY) for 10 days in 4°C and then ISH signal was visualized using D19 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) and then fixed in Rapid fix (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO).
Immunofluorescence
Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, 6-micrometer thick tissue sections were deparaffinized in Histoclear (National Diagnostics, Atlanta, GA) and rehydrated for 3 minutes in 100%, 95%, and 70% alcohol followed by PBS. Endogenous peroxidase activity was inactivated by immersing the section in 3% H2O2 for 20 minutes. Antigen unmasking was performed using antigen retrieval Citra® solution (BioGenex, San Ramon, CA). Tissue sections were blocked with protein blocking agent (Thermo, Pittsburgh, PA) for 20 minutes. GFAP staining was performed using polyclonal rabbit anti-human GFAP (1:500; DAKO, Carpinteria, CA). Iba1 staining was performed using rabbit anti-human Iba1 (1:500; Waco Chemicals, Richmond, VA) and CHI3L1 staining was performed using goat anti-human chitinase 3-like 1 (1:1000; R&D systems, Minneapolis, MN). These staining were followed by goat anti-rabbit Dylight 488 antibody (1:200; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA) or mouse anti-goat biotin-conjugated antibody (1:200; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA).
Quantitation of in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence
Five fields from each case were captured by confocal microscopy and analyzed for the number of ISH-positive cells or ISH/IHC pixels per field (LSM 510, Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, Inc., Thornwood, NY). Illumination was provided by Argon (458, 477, 488, 514 nm, 30 mW), HeNe (543 nm, 1 mW) lasers. Digital images were captured with LSM 510 version 4.2 (Zeiss).
Semi-quantitation of CHI3L1 in situ hybridization in infarct cases
Infarct presence or absence was established by a neuropathologist (RLH), then infarct age was charachterized as acute, subacute, or chronic based upon neuropathological features seen on hematoxylin staining as previously described [
17]. Due to the focal nature of infarct pathology a semi-quantitative scoring was performed by a neuropathologist (CAW) blinded to clinical characteristics in 4 cases of acute infarct, 5 cases of subacute infarcts and 5 cases of chronic infarct. ISH scoring of CHI3L1 was assigned a score from 0 to (++++) based on ISH intensity: no siganl = 0, occasional positive cells = (+/-), weak signal = (+), moderate signal = (++), strong signal = (+++) and intense signal = (++++).
CHI3L1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
CHI3L1 levels were determined, in duplicate, for all of the CSF samples using the MicroVue CHI3L1 ELISA kit from Quidel Corporation (San Diego, CA) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Absorbance was measured using a microplate reader (BioTek Instruments, Inc., Winooski, VT).
Statistical analysis
Average ± standard error (SEM) of CSF CHI3L1 concentrations from MS, AD, ALS, stroke patients and healthy young and aged controls were graphed. The Mann-Whitney test was used to computes the statistical difference between disease groups and control patients. CHI3L1 ISH and GFAP imuunohistochemistry pixels were captured by confocal microscopy from 5 random fields of each of the SIVE, SIV, infarct, MS, AD, Pick's disease and schizophrenia cases. Average pixels per filed were calculated and a linear regression was used to determine a correlation between CHI3L1 pixel count and GFAP pixel count.
Discussion
In this study we found that CHI3L1 is expressed in astrocytes and is associated with reactive gliosis in different neuropathological conditions particularly those associated with neuroinflammation. Therefore CHI3L1 could potentially be explored as a biomarker for neuroinflammation.
CHI3L1 expression in the neuroinflammatory model of SIVE
We have previously reported that CHI3L1 serves as a CSF biomarker for the development of encephalitis after SIV or HIV infection [
11]. Our data showed a correlation between the time-course of CHI3L1 concentration and viral load in the CSF. In addition, we found a paradox that CHI3L1 is released from macrophages
in vitro but
in vivo CHI3L1 protein was in the soma of astrocytes in the vicinity of microglial nodules. In this study we show that CHI3L1 mRNA is expressed by reactive astrocytes surrounding microglial nodules suggesting that macrophages possibly through released inflammatory mediators, can induce CHI3L1 expression in surrounding astrocytes but not neurons. These findings suggest that CHI3L1 found in the CSF in SIVE/HIVE could be derived from reactive astrocytes. It has been shown by others that differentiated macrophages do express CHI3L1
in vitro and
in vivo in peritumoral macrophages in small cell lung cancer, in atherosclerotic plaques or in an asthma model in mice [
12,
18,
19]. Therefore, it is not clear why CHI3L1 transcription in the brain is less evident in activated tissue macrophages/microglia. We hypothesize that YKL40 transcription by macrophages is inhibited soon after they enter the brain and this may account for the differences seen in other tissue pathologies. We are attempting to further dissect this paradox with in vitro studies.
CHI3L1 expression in stroke and neurodegenerative diseases
Previously, CHI3L1 expression was shown to be up-regulated in inflammatory conditions, but apart from one report of increased CHI3L1 mRNA in AD brain, there were no data in the literature characterizing the cellular source of CHI3L1 in neurodegenerative diseases. In this study we found high CHI3L1 transcription in two highly inflammatory diseases SIVE and MS. MS is a demyelinating disease associated with waxing and waning inflammation, gliosis and variable axon loss. CSF CHI3L1 levels were significantly elevated in MS patients, however, HIV-infected individual with high viral load showed higher CSF concentration consistent with the observation that neuroinflammation in encephalitis is more robust than in unselected MS. Comparing CSF concentration of CHI3L1 in patients at different stages of MS might be helpful in distinguishing active disease.
CHI3L1 transcript was also found in other neurodegenerative diseases like AD, ALS and Pick's disease as well as stroke, although to a lesser extent than SIVE and MS. In all cases, CHI3L1 was localized to astrocytes from which we would conclude that CHI3L1 expression is a general phenomena of reactive gliosis in response to neuroinflammation. Neuropathological astrocytosis not associated with neuroinflammation (e.g. spontaneous spongiform encephalopathy in rodents) is not associated with YKL40 expression (data not shown). This further emphasizes the use of CHI3L1 as a potential marker for CNS inflammatory conditions with its concentration reflecting a process of reactive gliosis. CSF samples from these diseases show increased CHI3L1 CSF levels compared to healthy young adults. Perhaps not surprisingly, older healthy adults have a very modest but significant elevation in CHI3L1 levels consistent with the hypothesis that low-grade inflammatory processes are induced in the aging brain.
CHI3L1 expression in schizophrenia
Recent studies showed increased CHI3L1 mRNA in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of schizophrenic patients [
13,
18]. Moreover, two genetic studies claimed that variants in the promoter of CHI3L1 are associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia [
19,
20]. However, a more recent study failed to confirm a genetic association between CHI3L1 and schizophrenia in Japanese and Chinese populations [
21]. Overall, our results showed only occasional CHI3L1 positive cells in schizophrenia. That the younger schizophrenic case (age 32) had almost no CHI3L1 positive astrocytes while the other two cases (ages 52 and 56) had more CHI3L1 positive astrocytes raises the question whether there is a relationship between CHI3L1 expression and schizophrenia or it is just age-related reactive gliosis.
CHI3L1 expression in acute, subacute and chronic human brain infarction
Comparison of CHI3L1 transcription in acute, subacute and chronic infarcts showed that there is focal and temporal expression of CHI3L1 in astrocytes at the site of injury. Maximal CHI3L1 induction starts at the acute stages (3-5 days; ischemic changes in neurons visible, prominent endothelium and early neutrophilic infiltrate; no reactive astrocytes, no macrophages), continues at the subacute stages (between 5 days to 4 weeks; numerous foamy macrophages, some reactive astrocytes) and then diminished at the chronic stages (more than 4 weeks; few or no macrophages, abundant reactive astrocytes). These differences in YKL-40 transcription in different stages of pathology implies that acute inflammation induces CHI3L1 expression in astrocytes proximal to the lesion and as inflammation resolves CHI3L1 expression is diminished.
Conclusions
In summary, while the biological functions of CHI3L1 are unclear, its expression is related to inflammation in a variety of diseases, and in this study we show this is true also in the brain. Paradoxically in the brain CHI3L1 synthesis appears to be more astrocytic than macrophage based. The role of CHI3L1 in reactive astrogliosis is still obscure, but from our previous study, it could potentially be involved in growth factor mobilization from the extracellular matrix and attenuation of their biological activities. Alternatively, a recent study by Shao et al showed that CHI3L1 can directly induce cell signaling through syndecan 1 and integrin α
νβ
3 and induce focal adhesion kinase phosphorylation [
22]. The BRP-39 knockout mice showed reduced inflammation and fibrosis and therefore one might speculate that the expression of CHI3L1 could contribute to the survival of infiltrating inflammatory cells thus prolonging their deleterious effects. This model could be a valuable model to explore the role of CHI3L1 in neuroinflammation.
Acknowledgements
We thank Arlene Carbone-Wiley, Jonette Werley and Mark Stauffer for valuable technical assistance; Dr. Robert Bowser and UCLA-HBSFRC for providing us with CSF and tissue samples. This work was supported by K24 MH01717 and RO1 MH071151 to CAW, Pittsburgh ADRC P50-AG05133 to RLH and Emmerling funds to DB-B.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
DBB conceived the study and participated in the design and coordination of the experiments and drafted the manuscript. GW carried the ISH and immunohistochemistry. AS participated in assessing CSF YKL-40 levels and ISH. RLH assessed the neuropathology of the infarct cases and CAW participated in the design and coordination of the study and helped drafting the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.