Human liver myeloid dendritic cells maturate in vivo into effector DC with a poor allogeneic T-cell stimulatory capacity.

We hypothesized that the relatively low immunogenicity of liver grafts might be related to a special maturation program of hepatic myeloid dendritic cells (MDC), yielding relatively immature effector MDC with weak allogeneic T-cell stimulatory capacity. To investigate whether maturation of human liver-derived MDC in vivo differs from maturation of MDC at another anatomical location, we compared the immunophenotypes and allogeneic T-cell stimulatory capacity of MDC from hepatic with those from inguinal lymph nodes (LN). MDC were purified by immunomagnetic selection from hepatic LN obtained from multi-organ donors (n = 8) and from inguinal LN of kidney transplant recipients (n = 7). MDC from hepatic LN had a significantly reduced capacity to stimulate allogeneic T-cell proliferation compared to MDC from inguinal LN. However, this was not due to an immaturity, since MDC from hepatic LN had significantly higher expressions of HLA-DR, CD80, and CD86 compared to MDC from inguinal LN. Hepatic MDC maturate in vivo to a mature type of effector MDC with relatively poor allogeneic T-cell stimulatory capacity.