0000000000372298

AUTHOR

Kristian Schütze

Dermal CD207-Negative Migratory Dendritic Cells Are Fully Competent to Prime Protective, Skin Homing Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Responses

Dendritic cells (DCs) are important inducers and regulators of T-cell responses. They are able to activate and modulate the differentiation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. In the skin, there are at least five phenotypically distinct DC subpopulations that can be distinguished by differential expression of the cell surface markers CD207, CD103, and CD11b. Previous studies have suggested that dermal CD11b−CD207+ conventional type 1 DCs are indispensable for the priming of a skin homing cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response. However, conventional type 1 DCs are also the only skin DC subset capable of cross-presenting exogenous antigens on major histocompatibility complex class I. Thus, it remained unclear…

research product

Microbiota-Induced Type I Interferons Instruct a Poised Basal State of Dendritic Cells

Summary Environmental signals shape host physiology and fitness. Microbiota-derived cues are required to program conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) during the steady state so that they can promptly respond and initiate adaptive immune responses when encountering pathogens. However, the molecular underpinnings of microbiota-guided instructive programs are not well understood. Here, we report that the indigenous microbiota controls constitutive production of type I interferons (IFN-I) by plasmacytoid DCs. Using genome-wide analysis of transcriptional and epigenetic regulomes of cDCs from germ-free and IFN-I receptor (IFNAR)-deficient mice, we found that tonic IFNAR signaling instructs a spec…

research product

A CD40/CD40L feedback loop drives the breakdown of CD8+T-cell tolerance following depletion of suppressive CD4+T cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the key APCs not only for the priming of naive T cells, but also for the induction and maintenance of peripheral T-cell tolerance. We have recently shown that cognate interactions between Foxp3(+) Tregs and steady-state DCs are crucial to maintain the tolerogenic potential of DCs. Using DIETER mice, which allow the induction of antigen presentation selectively on DCs without altering their maturation status, we show here that breakdown of CD8(+) T-cell tolerance, which ensues after depletion of suppressive CD4(+) T cells, is driven by a positive feedback loop in which autoreactive CD8(+) T cells activate DCs via CD40. These data identify ligation of CD40 on DCs as …

research product

Release of dendritic cells from cognate CD4 + T-cell recognition results in impaired peripheral tolerance and fatal cytotoxic T-cell mediated autoimmunity

Resting dendritic cells (DCs) induce tolerance of peripheral T cells that have escaped thymic negative selection and thus contribute significantly to protection against autoimmunity. We recently showed that CD4 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells (Tregs) are important for maintaining the steady-state phenotype of DCs and their tolerizing capacity in vivo. We now provide evidence that DC activation in the absence of Tregs is a direct consequence of missing DC–Treg interactions rather than being secondary to generalized autoimmunity in Treg-less mice. We show that DCs that lack MHC class II and thus cannot make cognate interactions with CD4 + T cells are completely unable to induce peripheral CD8 +…

research product