0000000000227311
AUTHOR
Ulrich Kühn
An approach to predictive testing of contact sensitizers in vitro by monitoring their influence on endocytotic mechanisms.
Endocytotic activation of epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) by immunogenic haptens is an early event during development of allergic contact dermatitis. In this work a fast and objective flow-cytometric assay for predictive in vitro testing of contact sensitizers by monitoring their influence on endocytotic mechanisms in murine LC was developed. Epidermal cell suspensions were labelled with a monoclonal antibody directed to MHC class II molecules and pH-sensitive fluorochrome-coupled second-step reagents. For untreated LC a significant quenching of fluorescence intensity by internalization of the MHC-antibody complexes into acidic compartments was noticed. Similar results were obtained in the …
Flow-cytometric screening for the modulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis in human dendritic cells: implications for the development of an in vitro technique for predictive testing of contact sensitizers
The aim of this study was to explore the usefulness of human blood dendritic cells (DC) in the development of an in vitro model for predictive testing of contact sensitizers. A method was established to monitor the influence of chemicals on the intracellular targeting of antibody-crosslinked MHC class II molecules after their uptake by human DC. Using a three-colour flow-cytometric technique, freshly prepared DC were distinguished from other MHC class II-bearing cell types such as B-cells and monocytes in unseparated mononuclear cell suspensions of healthy volunteers. The assay is based on the pH-sensitivity of internalized fluorescein-coupled MHC class II specific antibodies. Quenching of …
Increased Level of Phosphotyrosine in Human Dendritic Cells under Stimulation with Contact Sensitizers but Not Irritants
In the last years evidence was presented for the activation of dendritic cells (DC) under stimulation with contact sensitizers. Most data were obtained for murine Langerhans cells (LC) whereas in man blood-derived dendritic cells were found to be a more suitable model to study the mechanism of DC activation by haptens. The first observation was the upregulation of MHC class II molecules on murine Langerhans cells in vivo1 followed by their migration from the epidermis into regional lymph nodes2. Very early events during this activation include the upregulation of IL-1s in murine LC3 as well as the endocytotic activation of this cell type4. Based on the last observation attempts were made to…
Pro-inflammatory cytokines and prostaglandins induce maturation of potent immunostimulatory dendritic cells under fetal calf serum-free conditions.
Culture conditions for human dendritic cells (DC) have been developed by several laboratories. Most of these culture methods, however, have used conditions involving fetal calf serum (FCS) to generate DC in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin (IL)-4. Recently, alternative culture conditions have been described using an additional stimulation with monocyte-conditioned medium (MCM) and FCS-free media to generate DC. As MCM is a rather undefined cocktail, the yield and quality of DC generated by these cultures varies substantially. We report that a defined cocktail of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6 equals MCM in its potency to …