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Query: UMLS:C0033036 (APC)
 10,214 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A model of murine heterotopic allogeneic transplantation was used to study the rejection characteristics of three tissues--adult cornea, fetal pancreas, and fetal skin--for attributes that might explain their variation in rejection rates and help define the determinants of graft immunogenicity. Under identical conditions, tissues were transplanted to the renal subcapsular space and their base-line rejection rates compared. The expression of MHC class I and II and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), was determined for each tissue, as was their ability to produce interleukin-6, IL-3, interferon-gamma, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in vitro. These studies were performed under basal conditions and after stimulation with concanavalin A-stimulated spleen cell supernatant (CAS) or INF gamma. Corneal grafts had a slow rejection rate compared with pancreas and skin. While all three tissues had low basal expression of MHC class II, both fetal skin and pancreas, but not adult cornea, were able to increase this under our experimental conditions. Pancreas and skin produced IL-6 under basal conditions and could be stimulated to increase production 2-3-fold but the cornea did not basally produce IL-6 and showed minimal upregulation. We postulate that delayed corneal rejection, compared with pancreas and skin, results from two compounding deficiencies: the relative lack of class II MHC-positive APC and the inability to overcome this deficiency by upregulating class II expression and producing accessory molecules for antigen presentation.
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PMID:A comparison of corneal, pancreas, and skin grafts in mice. A study of the determinants of tissue immunogenicity. 751 13

Dendritic cells (DC) are important initiators of specific primary immune responses because they are the only APC that can efficiently activate naive Th cells. DC have the capacity to produce interleukin-12 (IL-12), a cytokine that plays a pivotal role in the development of Th1-mediated cellular immune responses. The present study focuses on the conditions under which human DC produce bioactive IL-12 p70 and, consequently, direct the development of naive T helper (Th) cells toward the Th1 phenotype. Bacteria or bacterial compounds such as Staphylococcus aureus Cowan strain I (SAC) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced substantial IL-12 levels in DC, which could be further upregulated by interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), whereas induction of IL-12 production via CD40 ligation required IFN-gamma as an obligatory, complementary signal. Also, activated naive Th cells were poor inducers of IL-12 production, unless exogenous IFN-gamma was present, whereas activated memory Th cells were effective inducers of IL-12 production and did not require exogenous IFN-gamma. Next, the cytokine profiles of matured Th cells that were primed by DC under different conditions were examined. DC promoted the development of naive Th cells into memory Th0 cells that produced both the type 1 cytokine IFN-gamma and the type 2 cytokine IL-4. In contrast, after activation with SAC, DC efficiently directed the development of Th1 cells through the release of IL-12. An APC-independent Th cell maturation model, using either recombinant IL-12 or supernatants of SAC-activated DC and neutralizing anti-IL-12 antibodies, confirmed that DC-derived IL-12 was the major Th1 skewing factor. Together, these data indicate that the contact between DC and naive Th cells during the initiation of specific immune responses does not result in the efficient induction of IL-12 production and that, consequently, exogenous IL-12-inducing factors are required to promote primary Th1-mediated cellular immune responses.
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PMID:Human dendritic cells require exogenous interleukin-12-inducing factors to direct the development of naive T-helper cells toward the Th1 phenotype. 929 25

Recipient IgG immunity against leukoreduced donor platelets is dependent on indirect T-cell allorecognition and is suppressed in vivo by inhibitors (aminoguanidine, AMG) of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). To examine recipient processing pathways of donor platelet antigens, enriched macrophages (antigen-presenting cells [APC]) from BALB/c (H-2(d)) mice were pulsed with allogeneic C57BL/6 (H-2(b)) platelets and transfused weekly into naive BALB/c mice. Platelet-pulsed APC stimulated IgG antidonor antibody production in 45% of recipients by the second transfusion and in 100% by the sixth transfusion; this response was enhanced by pulsing in the presence of interferon-gamma. By the sixth transfusion, high-titer IgG1 (mean titer 4990) and IgG2a (1933) isotypes specific for donor major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigens were detected. Platelet pulsing in the presence of AMG or colchicine significantly inhibited the ability of APC to stimulate IgG alloantibodies; only 50% (P <.005) and 20% (P <.0001) of recipients, respectively, produced antibodies by the sixth transfusion. AMG inhibition was reversed by the addition of L-arginine, the substrate for iNOS. In contrast, pulsing in the presence of chloroquine, the proteasome inhibitory peptide MG115, or Brefeldin A enhanced APC immunity (70-100% of recipients antibody positive by the second transfusion [P <.05]); these agents allowed the pulsed APC to stimulate IgG2a but inhibited IgG1 production and this correlated with a reduction in serum interleukin (IL)-4 levels. The results suggest that for donor platelet antigens to stimulate IgG alloantibodies, recipient APC use the essential generation of nitric oxide and a noncytosolic, pH-independent processing pathway, which can be exploited as an effective immunotherapy target to further inhibit alloimmunization against leukoreduced platelets. (Blood. 2000;95:1735-1742)
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PMID:Unique processing pathways within recipient antigen-presenting cells determine IgG immunity against donor platelet MHC antigens. 1068 32

CD4+ T cells play an important role in the induction and maintenance of an effective antiviral and antitumor immune response. However, standardized monitoring of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells has not been established at the single-cell level. We now present a sensitive, specific, and simple methodology in which purified memory CD4+ T cells are expanded from PBMC in a single cycle of antigen-driven stimulation and quantitatively assayed by interferon-gamma ELISPOT. Issues of nonspecific background in assays were resolved with the use of innovative target cells, autologous PHA-expanded CD4+ T cells (T-APC). Remarkably, T-APC could not only present peptide epitopes from model antigens NY-ESO-1 and influenza nucleoprotein, but could also process full-length antigen endogenously expressed from recombinant fowlpox vector. This approach makes it possible to monitor CD4+ T cells in large series of patients, regardless of HLA haplotype, against the full peptide repertoire of a given antigen.
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PMID:Monitoring CD4+ T cell responses against viral and tumor antigens using T cells as novel target APC. 1295 96

IL-18, previously named interferon-gamma inducing factor, is produced by monocytes/macropharges, dendritic cells, B cells and other APC cells as well as by astrocytes, microglia. IL-18 is a unique cytokine that stimulates both Th1 and Th2 responses depending on its cytokine milieu. Caspase-1 regulates the cellular export of IL-18. Anti IL-18 antibodies prevent EAE. IL-18 directs autoreactive T cells and promotes autodestruction in CNS via induction of IFN-gamma by NK cells in EAE. IL-18 is expressed in MS plaque. Common IL-18 promoter polymorphisms influence the expression on IL-18. IL-18 is linked to raised IFN-gamma in MS and is induced by activated CD4(+) T cells via CD40-CD40 ligand interaction. IL-18 in MS is suppressed by treatments such as GA and IFN-beta.
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PMID:[IL-18 in multiple sclerosis]. 1296 32

Several reports including those from this laboratory have demonstrated that bone marrow cells (BMC) downregulate in vitro both mixed leukocyte reaction and cytotoxic T lymphocyte reactions. We consequently hypothesized that a general property of immature cells of hematopoietic organs is their ability to suppress immune reactivity. As one of these suppressive activities, the lack of costimulatory molecules was proposed as a mechanism by which immature antigen presenting cells of the bone marrow might be involved. In the present report, we used two culture environments, each of which would regulate a different maturation pattern of human bone marrow-derived enriched dendritic antigen presenting cells (DC or APC) to determine the respective effects on in vitro immune regulatory function. Human BMC depleted of CD3+ cells were cultured with either: interleukin-4 (IL-4) and granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), to maintain DC-enriched populations in an immature state (iAPC); or an interferon-gamma (IFNgamma), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), GM-CSF, LPS, and IL-6 cocktail to promote the maturation of DC-enriched APC (mAPC). These iAPC and mAPC were, respectively, phenotypically characterized and also tested in vitro for the following: (1) both direct and indirect-antigen presentation functions; (2) immune regulatory functions on the response of autologous and allogeneic peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL); and (3) Western blot analysis determining the levels of both major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I related cytoplasmic transporter molecules associated with antigen processing (TAP1) and as well as proteasome activator molecules (PA28alpha). The iAPC population expressed fewer dendritic cell markers (CD83 and DCsign), and costimulator molecules (CD86 and CD40) than the mAPC, such that there was an approximate threefold increase in expression of CD83, 2.5-fold increase in DCsign, and a threefold increase in CD40 and CD86 on mAPC than on iAPC (p=0.005 for CD83; p=0.001 for DCsign; p=0.001 for CD86; and p=0.001 for CD40). In lymphoproliferative assays, indirect and direct alloantigen presentation by iAPC was weaker than by mAPC (p=0.05 and 0.04). In addition, iAPC were able to downregulate allogeneic CTL responses. Also, after pulsing with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) protein antigens, the iAPC were less efficient in their presentation to autologous EBV-specific T-cell lines, and caused an inhibition of EBV-CTL generation. The expression of TAP1 and PA28alpha was reduced in iAPC in comparison to mAPC. These findings support the notion that a maturation state of BMC-derived APC correlates with their capacity to present antigen. The observed in vitro deficiency of this function by immature bone marrow cells may therefore contribute to the immune downregulatory capacity seen in the BMC compartment.
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PMID:Antigen presentation and immune regulatory capacity of immature and mature-enriched antigen presenting (dendritic) cells derived from human bone marrow. 1496 64

OX40/OX40 ligand (OX40L) interactions have been shown to exert potent costimulatory effects on T-cell activation. OX40 expression is transiently up-regulated on T cells following T-cell receptor engagement, while OX40L is expressed on antigen-presenting cells following activation. Although expression of the OX40L by T cells has been reported, the requirements for induction of OX40L on T cells have not been studied in detail. Here, we demonstrate that the OX40L can be induced on murine CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells after 6 days of culture under T helper type 1 (Th1) conditions, but not under Th2 conditions. Induction of OX40L expression required a high concentration of interleukin-12 (IL-12), was not seen in the presence of interferon-gamma, and was dependent on signal transducer and activator of transcription type 4 (STAT4). Notably, induction of OX40L on T cells was only seen at very low concentrations of antigen or anti-CD3. T-cell-expressed OX40L was fully capable of delivering a potent costimulatory signal that enhanced the proliferation of CD4(+) T cells as well as promoted their differentiation to Th2 cells. OX40L expression could also be induced on CD4(+) T cells in vivo following immunization with low-dose antigen and an IL-12 inducer. OX40/OX40L interactions between antigen-specific T cells may occur in T-cell zones in lymph node and spleen when OX40L expression has diminished on APC. Costimulation by T-cell-expressed OX40L may result in deviation of a Th1 response to a Th2 response under conditions where T cells are exposed to low concentrations of foreign or autoantigens in the presence of high concentrations of IL-12.
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PMID:Activated T cells express the OX40 ligand: requirements for induction and costimulatory function. 1642 55

Natural killer cells are innate effector cells known for their potential to produce interferon-gamma and kill tumour and virus-infected cells. Recently, B220(+)CD11c(int)NK1.1(+) 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.
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PMID:Both conventional and interferon killer dendritic cells have antigen-presenting capacity during influenza virus infection. 1978 75