High fat diet exacerbates dextran sulfate sodium induced colitis through disturbing mucosal dendritic cell homeostasis

• High fat diet exacerbated the disease severity of DSS induced colitis.
• Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells dysregulation were found in HFD/DSS mice.
• HFD promoted the disequilibrium of mucosal dendritic cells.
• Low abundance of butyrate and RA were detected in the gut of HFD mice.

Epidemiological studies have shown that fat rich western diet contributes to the high incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Moreover, accumulated data indicated that fat dietary factor might promote the change of the composition and metabolism in commensal flora. But, the exact mechanisms for fatty diet in gut inflammation are not well demonstrated. In this study, we found that high fat diet (HFD) promoted inflammation and exacerbated the disease severity of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induced colitis in mice. Compared with low fat diet (LFD)/DSS mice, shorter colon length, more epithelial loss and crypt destruction and more Gr-1+ myeloid inflammatory cells infiltration in colons were observed in HFD/DSS cohorts. Interestingly, such HFD mediated inflammation accompanied with the dys-regulation of hematopoiesis, and more hematopoiesis stem and progenitor cells were detected in colon and spleen. We further analyzed the effects of HFD and DSS treatment on mucosal DC subsets, and found that DSS treatment in LFD mice mainly dramatically increased the percentage of CD11c+ CD103− CD11b+ DCs in lamina propria (LP). While, in HFD/DSS mice, HFD pre-treatment not only increased the percentage of CD11c+ CD103− CD11b+ DCs, but also decreased CD11c+ CD103+ CD11b+ in both LP and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) in mice with colitis. This disequilibrium of mucosal dendritic cells in HFD/DSS mice may depend on the reduced levels of buytrate and retinoic acid. Thus, this study declared the effects of HFD on gut microenviroment, and further indicated its potential role in the development of DSS induced colitis.