Identification of Two Subsets of Murine DC1 Dendritic Cells That Differ by Surface Phenotype, Gene Expression, and Function

• Published in: Frontiers in immunology Vol. 12; p. 746469
• Main Authors: Hongo, David, Zheng, Pingping, Dutt, Suparna, Pawar, Rahul D., Meyer, Everett, Engleman, Edgar G., Strober, Samuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 26.10.2021
• Subjects: Animals; CD4 T cell; CD8 Antigens - immunology; CD8 T cell; dendritic cells; Dendritic Cells - immunology; Immunology; Lymphocyte Activation - immunology; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Phenotype; Transcriptome - immunology; tumor vaccination; type I dendritic cells; type II dendritic cell; CD8 T cell; CD4 T cell; type I dendritic cells; dendritic cells; tumor vaccination; type II dendritic cell
• ISSN: 1664-3224; 1664-3224
• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.746469

Classical dendritic cells (cDCs) in mice have been divided into 2 major subsets based on the expression of nuclear transcription factors: a CD8 + Irf8 + Batf3 dependent (DC1) subset, and a CD8 - Irf4 + (DC2) subset. We found that the CD8 + DC1 subset can be further divided into CD8 + DC1a and CD8 + DC1b subsets by differences in surface receptors, gene expression, and function. Whereas all 3 DC subsets can act alone to induce potent Th1 cytokine responses to class I and II MHC restricted peptides derived from ovalbumin (OVA) by OT-I and OT-II transgenic T cells, only the DC1b subset could effectively present glycolipid antigens to natural killer T (NKT) cells. Vaccination with OVA protein pulsed DC1b and DC2 cells were more effective in reducing the growth of the B16-OVA melanoma as compared to pulsed DC1a cells in wild type mice. In conclusion, the Batf3-/- dependent DC1 cells can be further divided into two subsets with different immune functional profiles in vitro and in vivo .