Plasmacytoid dendritic cells regulate colitis-associated tumorigenesis by controlling myeloid-derived suppressor cell infiltration

Toll-like receptor (TLR)3 and TLR7 are important for stimulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), which secrete type I interferon. Mice deficient for TLR3 and TLR7 (TLR3^−/−TLR7^−/−) reportedly exhibit deteriorated colitis because of impaired pDCs. However, the role of pDCs in tumorigenesis-associated inflammation progression has not been studied. We treated wild-type or TLR3^−/−TLR7^−/− mice with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and/or azoxymethane (AOM) and examined colon mucosa, measured body weight and colon length of mice, and examined pDC and myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) accumulation. Further, we depleted pDCs in AOM/DSS-treated wild-type mice by treating them with anti-PDCA-1 antibodies. We found that MDSCs significantly increased, while pDCs decreased in TLR3^−/−TLR7^−/− mice. Moreover, TLR3^−/−TLR7^−/− mice developed colitis-associated colon cancer following AOM/DSS treatment. Additionally, we showed that a defect in TLR7 of pDCs is responsible for the aggravation of colitis-associated colon cancer. Further, we showed that TLR7 ligand mitigates colitis-associated colon cancer. Collectively, our results demonstrate that gut pDCs play a crucial role in reducing colorectal cancer development via the regulation of infiltrating MDSCs.