Supernatants from UVB radiation-exposed keratinocytes inhibit Langerhans cell presentation of tumor-associated antigens via IL-10 content.

Exposure of mice to midrange UV radiation (UVB) (280-320 mm) in vivo leads to suppression of the ability to induce delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH). Systemic administration of supernatants from UVB-exposed keratinocytes (KC) similarly inhibits the ability to induce DTH and the presence of interleukin-10 (IL-10) in the supernatants has been shown to be responsible for this effect. It has been hypothesized that release of IL-10 by KC after exposure to UVB radiation in vivo may be responsible for UVB-induced inhibition of DTH and also for the inability of chronically UVB-irradiated mice to immunologically reject immunogenic UVB-induced skin tumors. To test directly whether supernatants from UVB-irradiated KC can inhibit presentation of tumor-associated antigens (TAA) by epidermal Langerhans cells (LC), cultures of the transformed murine KC line PAM 212 were exposed to 200 J/m2 of UVB radiation and 24 h supernatants obtained. CAF1 (H-2a/d) epidermal cells (EC) enriched for LC content were exposed to supernatants from irradiated (UV-SN) or mock-irradiated (MI-SN) PAM 212 cells for 3 h followed by culture for 16 h in granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and then were pulsed with soluble TAA derived from the murine spindle cell tumor S1509a (H-2a). ECs were then washed and injected subcutaneously into naive CAF1 mice three times at weekly intervals for priming. One week after the final immunization these mice were challenged subcutaneously with live S1509a cells and tumor growth scored over time. Pretreatment of EC with UV-SN but not MI-SN inhibited the induction of effective immunity by this immunization scheme. ECs were also treated with UV-SN or MI-SN for 3 h then pulsed with TAA and injected into a hind footpad of previously immunized mice for elicitation of a DTH response. Pretreatment of EC with UV-SN but not MI-SN inhibited the ability of EC to elicit DTH. Neutralization studies with specific neutralizing antibodies to IL-10 demonstrated that the presence of IL-10 in UV-SN was responsible for the inhibition of antigen presentation both for induction and elicitation of immunity. UV-SN inhibits tumor antigen presentation by epidermal LC through the action of IL-10.