The lysosomal transfer of LDL/cholesterol from macrophages into vascular smooth muscle cells induces their phenotypic alteration.

Aims: Macrophages (MPs) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) closely interact within the growing atherosclerotic plaque. An in vitro co-culture model was established to study how MPs modulate VSMC behaviour.

Methods And Results: MPs were exposed to fluorescence-labelled-acetylated LDL (FL-acLDL) prior to co-culture with VSMCs.

Induction of cellular immune responses in patients with stage-I multiple myeloma after vaccination with autologous idiotype-pulsed dendritic cells.

Idiotype vaccines have shown both biological efficacy and clinical benefit in lymphoma. Circulating idiotype proteins (Id) in multiple myeloma patients offer a suitable target for immunotherapy. So far, specific immune responses after vaccination with Ids have been evaluated mostly in advanced myeloma.

Alemtuzumab depletes dendritic cells more effectively in blood than in skin: a pilot study in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The antibody alemtuzumab (anti-CD52) is effective in preventing acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT). As well as depleting donor T cells, alemtuzumab may also work by targeting host dendritic cells (DC). To determine whether this second mechanism of action is significant, we investigated the effects of intravenous alemtuzumab by comparing skin and blood DC numbers of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, before and after a 4-week course of alemtuzumab treatment.

Fast appearance of donor dendritic cells in human skin: dynamics of skin and blood dendritic cells after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Background: Both number and origin (donor vs. host) of dendritic cells (DC) are associated with acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD), relapse and graft failure after human allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (aHCT).

Methods: We prospectively and simultaneously investigated skin and blood DC subtypes, their donor/recipient origin, and the correlation of DC reconstitution kinetics with treatment, clinical outcome, and incidence of aGvHD in patients undergoing aHCT.

Rapid establishment of dendritic cell chimerism in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients.

Regeneration of hematopoiesis after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) involves conversion of the recipient's immune system to donor type. It is likely that distinct cell lineages in the recipient reconstitute at different rates. Dendritic cells (DCs) are a subset of hematopoietic cells that function as a critical component of antigen-specific immune responses because they modulate T-cell activation, as well as induction of tolerance.