Intestinal epithelial vitamin D receptor defense against inflammatory bowel disease via regulating microfold cells

Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the mechanism of VDR in IBD is still unclear. Microfold cells (M cells) mediated antigen-sampling pathway is central in developing immune responses to pathogenic and commensal bacteria and related to IBD. We found that Intestinal epithelial cell-specific knockdown of VDR(VDRIEC-KO) increases the susceptibility of mice to experimental colitis induced by sodium dextran sulfate(DSS) by producing more M cells. Knockdown VDR in intestinal epithelial cells increased RANKL-induced microfold cells and promoted the ability of microfold cells to uptake S. Typhimurium (S. T.). Mechanistically, we demonstrated that knockdown VDR promoted the differentiation and maturation of M cells via the Spi-B-dependent pathway. We conclude that M cells may be a potential target of VDR for treating intestinal mucosal barrier dysfunction in IBD.