In humans and mice naturally occurring regulatory T cells (nTregs) are crucial for the maintenance of peripheral tolerance by controlling not only potentially autoreactive T cells but virtually all cells of the adaptive and innate immune system. Here we show that co-culture of murine dendritic cells (DC) and nTregs results in an immediate increase of cAMP in DC, responsible for a rapid down-regulation of co-stimulatory molecules (CD80, CD86). In addition, the inhibitory surface molecule B7-H3 on DC is up-regulated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDendritic cells (DCs) are the most powerful antigen presenting cells (APCs) in the immune system. Therefore, they are able to take up antigen by phagocytosis, macropinocytosis or endocytosis, process it in the cytosol and present it to naive T cells. It is known that presentation of the immunodominant influenza virus nucleoprotein-derived CTL epitope is delayed in bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) compared to non-professional APCs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFToll-like receptors (TLRs) are able to interact with pathogen-derived products and their signals induce the coordinated activation of innate and adaptive immune mechanisms. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in these events. As the different TLRs are able to trigger MyD88/TRIF-dependent and -independent signaling pathways, we wondered if the simultaneous activation of these signaling cascades would synergize with respect to DC activation and induce superior cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activity in vivo.
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