Liver ILC2s suppress gluconeogenesis and limit blood glucose elevation through IL-13 signaling [bulkRNA-seq_Hepatocyte]

The liver stores glycogen and releases blood glucose and is therefore essential for glucose metabolism. Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in adipose and pancreatic tissues are involved in glucose homeostasis, but the metabolic contribution of liver ILC2s remains unclear. Herein, we show that interleukin (IL)-33 treatment induced IL-13 production in liver ILC2s, which consequently reduced blood glucose levels. IL-13 also directly suppressed gluconeogenesis in primary hepatocytes. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and cell-cell interaction analysis in liver ILC2s and hepatocytes demonstrated that IL-33 administration suppressed gluconeogenesis in a specific Hnf4a/G6pchigh-hepatocyte cluster involving expression of Stat3, which significantly interacted with liver ILC2s via IL-13/IL-13 receptor signaling. To address the regulatory mechanism underlying IL-13 production in liver ILC2s, we performed GATA3 transcriptional complex analysis, and GATA3-ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and scRNA-seq trajectory analyses, focusing on GATA3-interacting proteins that were functionally specific in ILC2s. AP-1 family members were found to suppress the induction of IL-13 in liver ILC2s. Thus, our study revealed a novel role for liver ILC2s in glucose homeostasis. Primary hepatocyte were isolated from wild type mouse, then cultured and stimulated with cAMP or glucagon, in the presence or absence of IL-13. Then RNA of each sample was extracted and subjected to RNA-seq to evaluted metabolism related genes including gluconeogenic enzyme.