Plasmacytoid dendritic cells capture and cross-present viral antigens from influenza-virus exposed cells.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19771163.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0007111 and PMC identifier 2741572.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Among the different subsets of dendritic cells (DC), plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) play a unique role in secreting large amounts of type I interferons upon viral stimulation, but their efficiency as antigen-presenting cells has not been completely characterized. We show here, by flow cytometry, with human primary blood PDC and with a PDC cell line, that PDC display poor endocytic capacity for soluble or cellular antigens when compared to monocyte-derived myeloid DC. However, immature PDC efficiently take up cellular material from live influenza-exposed cells, subsequently mature and cross-present viral antigens very efficiently to specific CD8+ T cells. Therefore, during viral infection PDC not only secrete immunomodulatory cytokines, but also recognize infected cells and function as antigen cross-presenting cells to trigger the anti-viral immune response.
Medical subject headings
- Antigen-Presenting Cells
- Antigens, Viral
- Dendritic Cells
- Orthomyxoviridae