Evidence for local dendritic cell activation in pulmonary sarcoidosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease characterized by a seemingly exaggerated immune response against a difficult to discern antigen. Dendritic cells (DCs) are pivotal antigen presenting cells thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis. Paradoxically, decreased DC immune reactivity was reported in blood samples from pulmonary sarcoidosis patients. However, functional data on lung DCs in sarcoidosis are lacking. We hypothesized that at the site of disease DCs are mature, immunocompetent and involved in granuloma formation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed myeloid DCs (mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) in broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) and blood from newly diagnosed, untreated pulmonary sarcoidosis patients and healthy controls using 9-color flowcytometry. DCs, isolated from BAL using flowcytometric sorting (mDCs) or cultured from monocytes (mo-DCs), were functionally assessed in a mixed leukocyte reaction with naïve allogeneic CD4+ T cells. Using Immunohistochemistry, location and activation status of CD11c⁺DCs was assessed in mucosal airway biopsies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>mDCs in BAL, but not in blood, from sarcoidosis patients were increased in number when compared with mDCs from healthy controls. mDCs purified from BAL of sarcoidosis patients induced T cell proliferation and differentiation and did not show diminished immune reactivity. Mo-DCs from patients induced increased TNFα release in co-cultures with naïve allogeneic CD4⁺T cells. Finally, immunohistochemical analyses revealed increased numbers of mature CD86⁺DCs in granuloma-containing airway mucosal biopsies from sarcoidosis patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, these finding implicate increased local DC activation in granuloma formation or maintenance in pulmonary sarcoidosis.</p

Alum adjuvant boosts adaptive immunity by inducing uric acid and activating inflammatory dendritic cells

Alum (aluminum hydroxide) is the most widely used adjuvant in human vaccines, but the mechanism of its adjuvanticity remains unknown. In vitro studies showed no stimulatory effects on dendritic cells (DCs). In the absence of adjuvant, Ag was taken up by lymph node (LN)–resident DCs that acquired soluble Ag via afferent lymphatics, whereas after injection of alum, Ag was taken up, processed, and presented by inflammatory monocytes that migrated from the peritoneum, thus becoming inflammatory DCs that induced a persistent Th2 response. The enhancing effects of alum on both cellular and humoral immunity were completely abolished when CD11c+ monocytes and DCs were conditionally depleted during immunization. Mechanistically, DC-driven responses were abolished in MyD88-deficient mice and after uricase treatment, implying the induction of uric acid. These findings suggest that alum adjuvant is immunogenic by exploiting “nature's adjuvant,” the inflammatory DC through induction of the endogenous danger signal uric acid

Clearance of influenza virus from the lung depends on migratory langerin+CD11b− but not plasmacytoid dendritic cells

Although dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in mediating protection against influenza virus, the precise role of lung DC subsets, such as CD11b− and CD11b+ conventional DCs or plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), in different lung compartments is currently unknown. Early after intranasal infection, tracheal CD11b−CD11chi DCs migrated to the mediastinal lymph nodes (MLNs), acquiring co-stimulatory molecules in the process. This emigration from the lung was followed by an accumulation of CD11b+CD11chi DCs in the trachea and lung interstitium. In the MLNs, the CD11b+ DCs contained abundant viral nucleoprotein (NP), but these cells failed to present antigen to CD4 or CD8 T cells, whereas resident CD11b−CD8α+ DCs presented to CD8 cells, and migratory CD11b−CD8α− DCs presented to CD4 and CD8 T cells. When lung CD11chi DCs and macrophages or langerin+CD11b−CD11chi DCs were depleted using either CD11c–diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR) or langerin-DTR mice, the development of virus-specific CD8+ T cells was severely delayed, which correlated with increased clinical severity and a delayed viral clearance. 120G8+ CD11cint pDCs also accumulated in the lung and LNs carrying viral NP, but in their absence, there was no effect on viral clearance or clinical severity. Rather, in pDC-depleted mice, there was a reduction in antiviral antibody production after lung clearance of the virus. This suggests that multiple DCs are endowed with different tasks in mediating protection against influenza virus

Dendritic cells are crucial for maintenance of tertiary lymphoid structures in the lung of influenza virus–infected mice

Tertiary lymphoid organs (TLOs) are organized aggregates of B and T cells formed in postembryonic life in response to chronic immune responses to infectious agents or self-antigens. Although CD11c+ dendritic cells (DCs) are consistently found in regions of TLO, their contribution to TLO organization has not been studied in detail. We found that CD11chi DCs are essential for the maintenance of inducible bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (iBALT), a form of TLO induced in the lungs after influenza virus infection. Elimination of DCs after the virus had been cleared from the lung resulted in iBALT disintegration and reduction in germinal center (GC) reactions, which led to significantly reduced numbers of class-switched plasma cells in the lung and bone marrow and reduction in protective antiviral serum immunoglobulins. Mechanistically, DCs isolated from the lungs of mice with iBALT no longer presented viral antigens to T cells but were a source of lymphotoxin (LT) β and homeostatic chemokines (CXCL-12 and -13 and CCL-19 and -21) known to contribute to TLO organization. Like depletion of DCs, blockade of LTβ receptor signaling after virus clearance led to disintegration of iBALT and GC reactions. Together, our data reveal a previously unappreciated function of lung DCs in iBALT homeostasis and humoral immunity to influenza virus

Inflammatory dendritic cells—not basophils—are necessary and sufficient for induction of Th2 immunity to inhaled house dust mite allergen

It is unclear how Th2 immunity is induced in response to allergens like house dust mite (HDM). Here, we show that HDM inhalation leads to the TLR4/MyD88-dependent recruitment of IL-4 competent basophils and eosinophils, and of inflammatory DCs to the draining mediastinal nodes. Depletion of basophils only partially reduced Th2 immunity, and depletion of eosinophils had no effect on the Th2 response. Basophils did not take up inhaled antigen, present it to T cells, or express antigen presentation machinery, whereas a population of FceRI+ DCs readily did. Inflammatory DCs were necessary and sufficient for induction of Th2 immunity and features of asthma, whereas basophils were not required. We favor a model whereby DCs initiate and basophils amplify Th2 immunity to HDM allergen

Both Conventional and Interferon Killer Dendritic Cells Have Antigen-Presenting Capacity during Influenza Virus Infection

Natural killer cells are innate effector cells known for their potential to produce interferon-γ and kill tumour and virus-infected cells. Recently, B220+CD11cintNK1.1+ NK cells were found to also have antigen-presenting capacity like dendritic cells (DC), hence their name interferon-producing killer DC (IKDC). Shortly after discovery, it has already been questioned if IKDC really represent a separate subset of NK cells or merely represent a state of activation. Despite similarities with DCs, in vivo evidence that they behave as bona fide APCs is lacking. Here, using a model of influenza infection, we found recruitment of both conventional B220− NK cells and IKDCs to the lung. To study antigen-presenting capacity of NK cell subsets and compare it to cDCs, all cell subsets were sorted from lungs of infected mice and co-cultured ex vivo with antigen specific T cells. Both IKDCs and conventional NK cells as well as cDCs presented virus-encoded antigen to CD8 T cells, whereas only cDCs presented to CD4 T cells. The absence of CD4 responses was predominantly due to a deficiency in MHCII processing, as preprocessed peptide antigen was presented equally well by cDCs and IKDCs. In vivo, the depletion of NK1.1-positive NK cells and IKDCs reduced the expansion of viral nucleoprotein-specific CD8 T cells in the lung and spleen, but did finally not affect viral clearance from the lung. In conclusion, we found evidence for APC function of lung NK cells during influenza infection, but this is a feature not exclusive to the IKDC subset

Persistent activation of dendritic cells after resolution of allergic airway inflammation breaks tolerance to inhaled allergens in mice

Rationale: Polysensitization of patients who are allergic is a common feature. The underlying immunologic mechanism is not clear. The maturation status of dendritic cells (DCs) is considered to be important for priming naive T cells in the draining lymph nodes. We hypothesized that chronic airway inflammation can induce an enhanced maturation of airway DCs and facilitate subsequent priming to neoallergens. Objectives: To investigate whether chronic airway inflammation could induce an altered activation of airway DCs in mice and whether this influences the development of allergic sensitization. Methods: Balb/c mice were repeatedly challenged with DCs to induce a chronic airway inflammation. We evaluated (1) the induction of the main characteristic features of human asthma including persistent remodeling, (2) the maturation status of airway DCs 1 month after inflammation resolved, (3) whether this influences tolerance to inhaled neoallergen, and (4) what type of T helper response would be induced by DCs. Measurements and Main Results: Airway DCs displayed a mature phenotype after complete resolution of airway eosinophilia. Inhalation of a neoallergen without any adjuvant was able to induce airway inflammation in postinflammation lungs but not in control lungs. One month after inflammation, airway DCs were able to induce Th2 polarization in naive T cells consistent with the up-regulation of the Th2 skewing molecules Ym1/2 and OX-40L compared with DCs of control airways. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that sustained maturation of DCs after resolution of Th2-mediated inflammation can contribute to polysensitization

Facilitated antigen uptake and timed exposure to TLR ligands dictate the antigen-presenting potential of plasmacytoid DCs

Subsets of antigen-presenting cDCs have a differential capacity to present exogenous and endogenous protein antigens to CD4(+) and/or CD8(+) T lymphocytes, depending on expression of antigen-uptake receptors, processing machinery, and microbial instruction. pDCs are also capable of antigen presentation, but the conditions under which they do this have not been systematically addressed. Highly purified cDCs and pDCs were exposed to exogenous, soluble OVA peptide or whole protein. Alternatively, they were made to express cytoplasmic or endosomal OVA by retroviral transduction or by infection with influenza virus containing OVA epitopes. Like cDCs, pDCs expressed the MHC I processing machinery and could present endogenous or cross-present exogenous OVA to CD8(+) T cells, provided they had been stimulated by CpG motif TLR9 ligands or by influenza. Unlike cDCs, the cross-priming activity of pDCs was enhanced, not decreased, by simultaneous TLR stimulation. Processing and presentation of exogenous OVA to CD4(+) T cells required TLR9 ligation prior to antigen encounter and addition of OVA-specific Igs. These stimuli up-regulated critical MHC II processing machinery and enhanced routing to acidic endosomal organelles in a Fc gamma RII-dependent manner. Endogenous antigen was not presented to CD4(+) T cells when expressed in the cytoplasm of pDCs by retrovirus or contained in influenza, unless an Ii-chain-derived endosomal routing signal was present. Thus, timing of TLR ligation and facilitated antigen uptake dictate the potential of pDCs to present endogenous or exogenous antigen by influencing endosomal traffic and antigen-processing machinery