Antigen presentation by spleen dendritic cells.

It is now recognized that dendritic cells (DC) isolated from mouse spleen play an important role in activating T lymphocytes. These DC, which show many similarities to veiled cells found in the paracortical regions of spleen and lymph node, may be closely related to the epidermal Langerhans cells. It is known that DC are extremely effective allostimulators. We have also found that although DC lack demonstrable phagocytic ability, they are extremely potent at presenting soluble polypeptide antigens to primed T cells. Since T lymphocytes comprise several distinct subsets (particularly cytotoxic, helper, and suppressor) in our most recent studies we have asked whether DC are able to trigger all these different subsets of T cells. We examined the ability of different spleen cell types coupled with the hapten NP to induce antigen-specific T suppressors for a delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) response. It was found that T suppressors were generated only when hapten was conjugated to a spleen-derived antigen-presenting cell. Further analysis revealed that macrophages but not DC were able to induce defined sets of suppressor cells in vivo (although DC were able to trigger a very powerful DTH response). We also examined the ability of DC to activate T cells which are required to cooperate with B cells in the production of antibody. Even though DC were able to trigger T lymphocytes to produce lymphokines, these activated T cells did not act as helper cells in a standard hapten-carrier system. Possible mechanisms for this dichotomy of DC function are discussed.