'Educated' dendritic cells act as messengers from memory to naive T helper cells.
Ingested antigens lead to the generation of effector T cells that secrete interleukin 4 (IL-4) rather than interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and are capable of influencing naive T cells in their immediate environment to do the same. Using chimeric mice generated by aggregation of two genotypically different embryos, we found that the conversion of a naive T cell occurs only if it can interact with the same antigen-presenting cell, although not necessarily the same antigen, as the effector T cell. Using a two-step culture system in vitro, we found that antigen-presenting dendritic cells can act as 'temporal bridges' to relay information from orally immunized memory CD4 T cells to naive CD4 T cells. The orally immunized T cells use IL-4 and IL-10 (but not CD40 ligand) to 'educate' dendritic cells, which in turn induce naive T cells to produce the same cytokines as those produced by the orally immunized memory T cells.
Alpan
Oral
O
Ghost Lab, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. oalpan@niaid.nih.gov
Bachelder
Eric
E
Isil
Eda
E
Arnheiter
Heinz
H
Matzinger
Polly
P
D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000276:immunology*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000276:immunology*; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
D015847:Interleukin-4