BACKGROUND Hybrid cells produced by fusions of tumor and dendritic cells (DC) have demonstrated remarkable efficacy for priming the anti-tumor immune response. In the current study, we examined the antitumor activity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) primed in response to a tumor vaccine comprising a glioma-DC fusion as part of a therapeutic against glioma. MATERIAL AND METHODS Primary cultur...

Gonorrhea is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases in the world. A naturally occurring variation of the terminal carbohydrates on the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) molecule correlates with altered disease states. Here, we investigated the interaction of different stable gonoccocal LOS phenotypes with human dendritic cells and demonstrate that each variant targets a different set o...

Glucose and glycolysis are important for the proinflammatory functions of many immune cells, and depletion of glucose in pathological microenvironments is associated with defective immune responses. Here we show a contrasting function for glucose in dendritic cells (DCs), as glucose represses the proinflammatory output of LPS-stimulated DCs and inhibits DC-induced T-cell responses. A glucose-se...

MnTE-2-PyP, a superoxide dismutase mimetic, inhibited OVA-induced airway inflammation in mice suggesting an effect on Th2 responsiveness. Thus, we hypothesized that MnTE-2-PyP may alter dendritic cell-Th2 interactions. Bone marrow derived dendritic cells (DC) and OVA(323-339)-specific Th2 cells were cultured separately in the presence or absence of MnTE-2-PyP for 3 days prior to the co-culturin...

Dendritic cells (DC) represent potent antigen-presenting cells for the induction of T cell-dependent immune responses. Previous work on antigen uptake and presentation by human DC is based largely on studies of blood DC that have been cultured for various periods of time before analysis. These cultured cells may therefore have undergone a maturation process from precursors that have different c...

Dap12 and FcRγ, the two transmembrane ITAM-containing signaling adaptors expressed in dendritic cells (DC), are implicated in the regulation of DC function. Several activating and adhesion receptors including integrins require these chains for their function in triggering downstream signaling and effector pathways, however the exact role(s) for Dap12 and FcRγ remains elusive as their loss can l...

We sought to evaluate the feasibility of molecular imaging using the human sodium iodide symporter (hNIS) gene as a reporter, in addition to the enhanced firefly luciferase (effluc) gene, for tracking dendritic cell (DCs) migration in living mice. A murine dendritic cell line (DC2.4) co-expressing hNIS and effluc genes (DC/NF) was established. For the DC-tracking study, mice received either par...

Dendritic cells (DC) are the major APCs involved in naive T cell activation making them prime targets of vaccine research. We observed that mRNA was efficiently transfected, resulting in superior translation in DC compared with other professional APCs. A single stimulation of T cells by HIV gag-encoded mRNA-transfected DC in vitro resulted in primary CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell immune responses at...

BACKGROUND Langerhans cell (LC) networks play key roles in immunity and tolerance at body surfaces. LCs are established prenatally and can be replenished from blood monocytes. Unlike skin-resident dermal DCs (dDCs)/interstitial-type DCs and inflammatory dendritic epidermal cells appearing in dermatitis/eczema lesions, LCs lack key monocyte-affiliated markers. Inversely, LCs express various epit...

Dendritic cells (DC) can provide all the known costimulatory signals required for activation of unprimed T cells and are the most efficient and perhaps the critical antigen presenting cells in the induction of primary T cell-mediated immune responses. It is now shown that mouse cell lines with many of the features of DC can be generated using the MIB phi 2-N11 retroviral vector transducing a no...