Lymphoid origin of intrinsically activated plasmacytoid dendritic cells in mice.

Araujo, Alessandra Machado; Dekker, Joseph D; Garrison, Kendra; Su, Zhe; Rhee, Catherine; Hu, Zicheng; Lee, Bum-Kyu; Osorio, Daniel et al. · Elife · 2024

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

We identified a novel mouse plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) lineage derived from the common lymphoid progenitors (CLPs) that is dependent on expression of <i>Bcl11a</i>. These CLP-derived pDCs, which we refer to as 'B-pDCs', have a unique gene expression profile that includes hallmark B cell genes, normally not expressed in conventional pDCs. Despite expressing most classical pDC markers such as SIGLEC-H and PDCA1, B-pDCs lack IFN-α secretion, exhibiting a distinct inflammatory profile. Functionally, B-pDCs induce T cell proliferation more robustly than canonical pDCs following Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) engagement. B-pDCs, along with another homogeneous subpopulation of myeloid-derived pDCs, display elevated levels of the cell surface receptor tyrosine kinase AXL, mirroring human AXL<sup>+</sup> transitional DCs in function and transcriptional profile. Murine B-pDCs therefore represent a phenotypically and functionally distinct CLP-derived DC lineage specialized in T cell activation and previously not described in mice.

Medical subject headings