CHARACTERIZATION OF 2 HUMAN DENDRITIC CELL-LINES THAT EXPRESS CD1A, TAKE-UP, PROCESS AND PRESENT SOLUBLE-ANTIGENS AND INDUCE MLR

Dendritic cells (DC) are bone marrow derived cells present in diverse tissues and organs including the skin, mucosae and blood. DC have a ca pital role in the afferent pathway of the immune response because of i ts role in up-take, processing and presenting antigens to immune cells . Human DC are usually identified by the expression of surface CD1a an d HLA-DR. Despite the significant recent developments for in vitro gen eration of DC derived from blood by using cytokines like GM-CSF and IL -4, the studies on DC and specially on human Langerhans cells (LC) hav e been hampered by the laborious isolation procedure and the small yie ld of cells obtained by the various methods of isolation used so far. Therefore, a priority has been a search for monoclonal dendritic cell- lines with LC characteristics in order to facilitate the research in t his area. The present study reports on the generation of two stable, s elf-replicant, adherent, dendritic, CD1a(+), HLA-DR+, CD45RO(+), CD23/ FcERII(+) cell-lines that up-take and process soluble antigens but als o inducing MLR and antigen-dependent T-cell response. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.