Blood dendritic cells in cattle infected with bovine leukemia virus (BLV): isolation and phenotyping.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are most potent antigen presenting cells (APCs) with unique ability to prime effective immune responses. They express higher levels of MHC class II and accesory molecules on their surface, than other professional APCs. The investigations were performed on DCs generated from blood with the use of microbeads magnetically labeled with mouse anti human CD14. Flow cytometry was applied for determination of DCs immunophenotype in healthy and naturally infected with BLV cattle. For immunophenotyping mouse monoclonal antibodies anti bovine: CD11a, CD11b, CD11c, MHC-I and MHC-II were used. Our results demonstrated that dendritic cells infected with BLV expressed very high percentage of determinants: CD11a, CD11b, CD11c, MHC-I and MHC-II class. Leukaemic DCs exhibited DCs morphology and had a phenotype of mature DCs. The expression of gp51 glycoprotein of BLV on leukaemic DCs was detected in flow cytometry investigations.