The Journal of Immunology, Vol 145, Issue 9 2820-2826, Copyright © 1990 by American Association of Immunologists

ARTICLES

Freshly isolated spleen dendritic cells and epidermal Langerhans cells undergo similar phenotypic and functional changes during short-term culture

G Girolomoni, JC Simon, PR Bergstresser and PD Cruz Jr
Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75235-9069.

Spleen dendritic cells (DC) and epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) belong to the same family of dendritic leukocytes and are considered to be prototypes of lymphoid DC and nonlymphoid DC, respectively. These cells are active APC in vitro and play a key role in the induction of primary T cell dependent immune responses in vivo. Two functional states of LC have been characterized in vitro, freshly isolated LC and cultured LC (cLC). That cLC closely resemble spleen DC in phenotype and function, has led to the hypothesis that LC undergo maturation toward DC while in culture, an event that has been correlated with the emigration of LC from skin into lymphoid organs. To date, however, DC have been studied only after overnight culture. To better understand the relationship between LC and DC, we examined DC shortly after their isolation from spleen, and after 24 h of culture. Freshly isolated DC (fDC) express high levels of MHC molecules and low levels of Fc gamma RII and C3biR; fDC also uniformly express the Ag recognized by the mAb 33D1, NLDC-145, and J11d. After culture, DC display a marked increase in the expression of MHC molecules, and they are induced to express the low affinity receptor for IL-2. By contrast, the expression of Fc gamma RII and F4/80 decreases with culture. With respect to function, fDC can efficiently present keyhole limpet hemocyanin to Ag-specific T cells, whereas cultured DC exhibit a marked reduction in this capacity. Finally, both fDC and cultured DC are capable of endocytosing surface Ia molecules, but only fDC are able to deliver them into acidic compartments. Our data indicate that fDC from spleen resemble freshly isolated LC from epidermis and that both cells undergo parallel changes during culture. These results suggest that LC and DC possess analogous attributes in vivo and respond similarly to external influences.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Moghaddami, L. G. Cleland, and G. Mayrhofer MHC II+ CD45+ cells from synovium-rich tissues of normal rats: phenotype, comparison with macrophage and dendritic cell lineages and differentiation into mature dendritic cells in vitro Int. Immunol., August 1, 2005; 17(8): 1103 - 1115. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. H. Cho, J. W. Youn, and Y. C. Sung Cross-Priming as a Predominant Mechanism for Inducing CD8+ T Cell Responses in Gene Gun DNA Immunization J. Immunol., November 15, 2001; 167(10): 5549 - 5557. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Corinti, C. Albanesi, A. la Sala, S. Pastore, and G. Girolomoni Regulatory Activity of Autocrine IL-10 on Dendritic Cell Functions J. Immunol., April 1, 2001; 166(7): 4312 - 4318. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Matsue, D. Edelbaum, A. C. Hartmann, A. Morita, P. R. Bergstresser, H. Yagita, K. Okumura, and A. Takashima Dendritic Cells Undergo Rapid Apoptosis In Vitro During Antigen-Specific Interaction with CD4+ T Cells J. Immunol., May 1, 1999; 162(9): 5287 - 5298. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. G McMenamin Dendritic cells and macrophages in the uveal tract of the normal mouse eye Br. J. Ophthalmol., May 1, 1999; 83(5): 598 - 604. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				B. J. Masten and M. F. Lipscomb Comparison of Lung Dendritic Cells and B Cells in Stimulating Naive Antigen-Specific T Cells J. Immunol., February 1, 1999; 162(3): 1310 - 1317. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				U. Kuhn, P. Brand, J. Willemsen, H. Jonuleit, A. H. Enk, R. van Brandwijk-Petershans, J. Saloga, J. Knop, and D. Becker Induction of Tyrosine Phosphorylation in Human MHC Class II-Positive Antigen-Presenting Cells by Stimulation with Contact Sensitizers J. Immunol., January 15, 1998; 160(2): 667 - 673. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. N.J. Hart Dendritic Cells: Unique Leukocyte Populations Which Control the Primary Immune Response Blood, November 1, 1997; 90(9): 3245 - 3287. [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. S. Song, V. Lee, C. D. Surh, A. Lynn, D. Brumm, D. J. Jolly, J. F. Warner, and S. Chada Antigen presentation in retroviral vector-mediated gene transfer in vivo PNAS, March 4, 1997; 94(5): 1943 - 1948. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Brocker, M. Riedinger, and K. Karjalainen Targeted Expression of Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class II Molecules Demonstrates that Dendritic Cells Can Induce Negative but Not Positive Selection of Thymocytes In Vivo J. Exp. Med., February 3, 1997; 185(3): 541 - 550. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]