Identification of the novel role of butyrate as AhR ligand in human intestinal epithelial cells

The ligand activated transcription factor, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) emerged as a critical regulator of immune and metabolic processes in the gastrointestinal tract. In the gut, a main source of AhR ligands derives from commensal bacteria. However, many of the reported microbiota-derived ligands have been restricted to indolyl metabolites. Here, by screening commensal bacteria supernatants on an AhR reporter system expressed in human intestinal epithelial cell line (IEC), we found that the short chain fatty acid (SCFA) butyrate induced AhR activity and the transcription of AhR-dependent genes in IECs. We showed that AhR ligand antagonists reduced the effects of butyrate on IEC suggesting that butyrate could act as a ligand of AhR, which was supported by the nuclear translocation of AhR induced by butyrate and in silico structural modelling. In conclusion, our findings suggest that (i) butyrate activates AhR pathway and AhR-dependent genes in human intestinal epithelial cell-lines (ii) butyrate is a potential ligand for AhR which is an original mechanism of gene regulation by SCFA.