Trophoblast cells modulate the functional profile of dendritic cells

G. SALAMONE, L. FRACCAROLI, L. VOJACEK, C. PÉREZ LEIRÓS, J. GEFFNER AND R. RAMHORST

Río de Janeiro

Congreso; 2nd Symposium of Reproductive Immunology; 2009

Dendritic cells (DC) appear to play an important role at the maternal-fetal interface by inducing a a tolerogenic microenvironment. Here we analyzed the ability of the trophoblast-cell line Swan-71 to modulate the phenotype and function of DC differentiated from peripheral blood monocytes (80% purity) from fertile women, with IL-4 and GM-CSF during 5 days. DC were cocultured with trophoblast cells (DC: trophoblast cells ratio of 5:1) for 24 h at 37¨¬C, and cells were cultured with or without LPS (0.1mg/ml) for an additional period of 24h. Then, the phenotype of DC were analyzed by flow cytometry.  Coculture of DCs with trophoblast cells did not result in changes in the expression of CD1a, HLA-DR, CD86 or CD40. Treatment with LPS resulted in the up-regulation of HLA-DR, CD86, and CD40. Interestingly, trophoblast cells increase the ability of LPS to up-regulates the expression of HLA-DR while partially impaired the up-regulation of CD86 triggered by LPS. Moreover, preincubation with trophoblast cells resulted in the up-regulation of the production of IL-10, MCP-1 and IL-6 (p<0.05) either in cells treated or not with LPS. By contrast, production of TNF-¥á triggered by LPS was partially impaired as a consequence of DC treatment with trophoblast cells. Together, our results shown that trophoblast cells are capable to modulate the phenotype and cytokine profile of DCs.