Le Poole I C, Mutis T, van den Wijngaard R M, Westerhof W, Ottenhoff T, de Vries R R, Das P K
Department of Dermatology, Amsterdam University, The Netherlands.
J Immunol. 1993 Dec 15;151(12):7284-92.
It is now well established that cultured human melanocytes are capable of expressing immunologically important cell surface molecules and that they can produce cytokines. Not all cells with the ability to express MHC class II molecules are capable of effective Ag presentation. However, the dendritic nature of melanocytes, their strategic position within the skin, and their phagocytic capacity seem to suggest a role for these cells in processing and presenting Ag. This study demonstrates that cultured normal human skin melanocytes can present peptide Ag, and process and present the mycobacterial HSP65 kDa protein and whole Mycobacterium leprae sonicate to CD4+ cytotoxic proliferative T cell clones in an Ag-specific and HLA-class II-restricted manner. T cell stimulation was dependent on costimulatory signals, i.e., LFA-3/CD2 and LFA-1/ICAM-1. Besides eliciting a T cell proliferative response, our studies further demonstrate that melanocytes can function as target cells for T cell-mediated cytotoxicity. The described Ag-processing and -presenting functions of melanocytes, taken together with in vivo behavior of melanocytes in hypopigmentation, provide new clues for the etiopathogenesis of melanin pigmentary disorders.
现已充分证实，培养的人黑素细胞能够表达具有重要免疫意义的细胞表面分子，并且能够产生细胞因子。并非所有具有表达MHC II类分子能力的细胞都能够有效地呈递抗原。然而，黑素细胞的树突状性质、它们在皮肤中的关键位置以及它们的吞噬能力似乎表明这些细胞在处理和呈递抗原方面发挥作用。本研究表明，培养的正常人皮肤黑素细胞能够呈递肽抗原，并以抗原特异性和HLA II类限制性方式将分枝杆菌65 kDa热休克蛋白和完整的麻风分枝杆菌超声裂解物加工并呈递给CD4 + 细胞毒性增殖性T细胞克隆。T细胞刺激依赖于共刺激信号，即淋巴细胞功能相关抗原-3（LFA-3）/ CD2和淋巴细胞功能相关抗原-1（LFA-1）/细胞间黏附分子-1（ICAM-1）。除了引发T细胞增殖反应外，我们的研究进一步表明黑素细胞可以作为T细胞介导的细胞毒性的靶细胞。黑素细胞所述的抗原加工和呈递功能，连同黑素细胞在色素减退中的体内行为，为黑色素色素沉着障碍的发病机制提供了新的线索。
