Differential endocytotic characteristics of a novel human B/DC cell line HBM-Noda: effective macropinocytic and phagocytic function rather than scavenging function.

In order to characterize a novel human B cell-lineage dendritic cell line (B/DC line) as an antigen-presenting cell (APC), we compared three types of endocytosis (micropinocytosis via a clathrin-coated pit, macropinocytosis via membrane ruffling, and phagocytosis) among myeloid-related, macrophage (Mphi) cell lines and a B/DC line. In the present examination, we used a unique human dendritic cell (DC) line, HBM-Noda (Noda). Flow cytometric and immunocytochemical analyses revealed that Noda not only expresses some DC markers, but also it expresses some B-cell associated markers. Noda shows strong capacities to stimulate allogenic T cells, to produce immunoglobulin G (IgG), and to perform immunoglobulin gene rearrangement. These data strongly suggest that Noda is a B-cell lineage DC line. The endocytic differences among these cell lines were as follows. (1) The level of micropinocytosis of Noda was significantly less than that of conventional human Mphi cell lines, and the formation of a clathrin-coated pit was not observed in Noda. (2) The level of macropinocytosis of Noda was also smaller than that of conventional Mphi cells indicating that the active membrane ruffling of Noda induces rapid recycling. (3) Phagocytosis of opsonized sheep red blood cells (SRBC) was performed more efficiently in Noda than in other Mphi cell lines. Collectively, these data suggest that in human bone marrow cells, we can identify a unique DC subtype, B/DC line, which develops through a lymphoid DC-differentiation pathway, and DC in this lineage plays an important role in the host immune response because of its effective uptake of a variety of size of antigens by using the skillful membrane ruffling and surface receptors