Mycobacterium tuberculosis-activated dendritic cells induce protective immunityin mice

Activated dendritic cells are critically important in the priming of T-cell responses. In this report we show that the infection of a conditionally im mortalized dendritic cell line (tsDC) with Mycobacterium tuberculosis resul ted in the up-regulation of B7-1 and B7-2 co-stimulatory molecules and the induction of several inflammatory cytokines, including tumour necrosis fact or-alpha and interleukin-6, -1 beta and -12. In addition, we show that thes e activated dendritic cells were capable of eliciting antigen-specific T-ce ll responses and potent anti-mycobacterial protective immunity in a murine model of experimental tuberculosis infection.