Aryl hydrocarbon receptor utilises cellular zinc signals to maintain the gut epithelial barrier

Both zinc and plant-derived ligands of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) are dietary components which regulate intestinal epithelial barrier function and protect against Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)1,2. Here, we explore whether zinc and AHR pathway are linked using a mouse IBD model with follow-on studies on human and mouse ileum organoids. Our data demonstrate that AHR regulates cellular zinc uptake, and that zinc is an integral part of AHR signalling processes. We show that dietary supplementation in mice with the plant-derived AHR ligand precursor, indole-3-carbinol (I3C), offers a high level of protection against dextran sulfate sodium induced IBD while protection fails in mice with AHR deleted in the intestinal epithelium. AHR agonist treatment is also ineffective in mice with a nutritional zinc deficiency. Experiments in the human Caco-2 cell line and ileum organoids showed that AHR activation increases total cellular zinc and cytosolic free Zn2+ concentrations through transcriptional upregulation of several SLC39 zinc importers. As a consequence, genes for tight junction (TJ) proteins were upregulated in a zinc-dependent manner involving zinc inhibition of signalling to NF-{kappa}B and attenuated degradation of TJ proteins through zinc inhibition of calpain activity. Thus, our data indicate that AHR activation by plant-derived dietary ligands improves gut barrier function via zinc-dependent cellular pathways, suggesting that combined dietary supplementation with AHR ligands and zinc might be effective in preventing and treating inflammatory gut disorders.