Native human blood dendritic cells as potent effectors in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity

• Published in: Blood 2002-08, Vol.100 (4), p.1502-1504
• Main Authors: Schmitz, Marc, Zhao, Senming, Schäkel, Knut, Bornhäuser, Martin, Ockert, Detlef, Rieber, Ernst Peter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; Analysis of the immune response. Humoral and cellular immunity; Animals; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antibody-Dependent Cell Cytotoxicity - immunology; Biological and medical sciences; Breast Neoplasms; Cell Separation; Colorectal Neoplasms; Dendritic Cells - immunology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fundamental immunology; Humans; Immunobiology; Immunomagnetic Separation; Mice; Organs and cells involved in the immune response; Receptors, IgG - analysis; Receptors, IgG - immunology; Tumor Cells, Cultured
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood.V100.4.1502.h81602001502_1502_1504

Functional studies on native human dendritic cells (DCs) are hampered by technical difficulties in preparing fresh DCs. Recently, with the help of the monoclonal antibody M-DC8, we succeeded in isolating a major subpopulation of human blood DCs by a one-step immunomagnetic separation procedure. These cells strongly express FcγRIII (CD16) and FcγRII (CD32) and are quite efficient in the antigen-specific activation of naive T cells. Because some Fcγ receptor-bearing cell types are known as effector cells in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), we investigated whether M-DC8+ DCs are capable of effectuating ADCC. In this report we show that freshly prepared M-DC8+ DCs efficiently mediate tumor-directed ADCC and that both types of Fcγ receptors as well as tumor necrosis factor α essentially contribute to the cytotoxic activity. The results provide evidence that, in addition to their pivotal role in primary T-cell activation, a subset of blood DCs displays efficient cytotoxicity in ADCC.