Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells activation by Epithelial Cells enhances their anti-HIV activity

RODRIGUEZ RODRIGUES C; CABRINI M; SABATTÉ J; REMES LENICOV F; GEFFNER J

Viña del Mar, Chile

Congreso; 9th Latin American Congress of Immunology; 2009

Latin American Association of Innmunology

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:ES; mso-fareast-language:ES;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Background Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play an important role in anti-viral immunity. Here we analyzed the epithelial cells ability to modulate the pDCs function. Method pDCs were isolated from PBMCs by positive selection (Miltenyi). As epithelial cells we used two colon cell lines, Caco-2 and HT-29. pDCs (1x105) were incubated for 24h with/without Caco-2 cells. Ghost cells transfected with GFP, CD4, and CXCR4 were used for anti-viral activity. Results. Incubation with Caco-2 cells resulted in up-regulation of CD86, CD40, HLA-DR, CD83 (p<0.01 vs controls), and cytokine production: IL-1, 755pg/ml ± 131 vs  104pg/ml ± 307; TNFα, 1481pg/ml ± 723 vs 15pg/ml± 5; IL-6, 423pg/ml ± 57 vs 138pg/ml ± 32; e IFNα, 9461pg/ml ± 1116 vs 118pg/ml ± 64 (n=3, p<0.05 vs controls). Similar results were observed using HT-29 cells, while no activation was found using non-epithelial cell lines. HT-29 cells also enhanced anti-viral activity of pDCs. We found that HT-29 cells enabled pDCs to mediate a stronger anti-viral activity: % of infected Ghost cells = 64 ± 17 vs 40 ± 10, for Ghost cells incubated with pDCs or pDCs co-cultured with HT-29 cells. Conclusion Our results suggest that epithelial cells enhance anti-viral activity of pDCs.