Successive generation of antigen-presenting, dendritic cell lines from murine epidermis.
Dendritic cells are specialized APCs that exhibit an extraordinary capacity to activate naive T cells. Langerhans cells (LC), as epithelial tissue-specific members of this family, play key roles in the induction of T cell-mediated immunity against environmental, infectious, and tumor-associated Ags in skin. A major limitation in studying the biology of dendritic cells or LC has been the absence of stable, long-term cell lines. To overcome this limitation, we have established a series of APC lines (XS series) from newborn BALB/c mouse epidermis. XS lines, which have grown for more than 12 mo in culture, exhibit high similarity to LC freshly procured from skin in terms of: a) tissue of derivation (epidermis), b) phenotype (lalow/CD45+/E-cadherin+/B7-1-), c) shape (elongated dendrites), and d) Ag-presenting profile (modest ability to activate naive, allogeneic T cells and remarkable ability to present a protein Ag to primed CD4+ T cells). The availability of XS lines as well as the methodologies used for their growth enhance our capability of studying the biology of LC at biochemical and molecular levels.
Xu
S
S
Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas 75235.
Ariizumi
K
K
Caceres-Dittmar
G
G
Edelbaum
D
D
Hashimoto
K
K
Bergstresser
P R
PR
Takashima
A
A
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002460:Cell Line; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*