Killing of naive T cells by CD95L-transfected dendritic cells (DC):in vivo study using killer DC-DC hybrids and CD4+ T cells from DO11.10 mice

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DC) play the dual task of initiating cellular immunity against potentially harmful foreign antigens (Ag), while maintaining immunological tolerance to self-Ag and environmental Ag. As an approach to induce Ag-specific suppression, we and others introduced CD95 ligand (L) cDNA into DC. The resulting "killer" DC delivered apoptotic signals, instead of activation signals, to primed CD4(+) T cells in vitro and induced Ag-specific immunosuppression in vivo. To study the impact of killer DC on naive T cells, the fate of Ag-reactive T cells and the extent of their depletion after killer DC treatment, we performed in vitro and in vivo reconstitution experiments using: (a) killer DC-DC hybrids created between CD95L-transduced XS106 DC clone (A/J origin) and splenic DC from BALB/c mice, (b) CD4(+) T cells isolated from DO11.10 transgenic mice (BALB/c background), and (c) OVA(323-339) peptide as relevant Ag. Ovalbumin (OVA)-pulsed killer DC-DC hybrids inhibited DO11.10 T cell activation triggered by conventional DC, instead of inducing their activation. Rapid apoptosis of T cells was observed after co-culture with OVA-pulsed killer DC-DC hybrids, but not with non-pulsed killer DC-DC hybrids or OVA-pulsed control DC-DC hybrids. For in vivo reconstitution, (BALB/cxA/J)F1 mice received subcutaneous administration of killer DC-DC hybrids, followed by intravenous inoculation of DO11.10 T cells. Killer DC-DC hybrids migrated preferentially to draining lymph nodes albeit with relatively low efficiency (0.5-1% recovery) and they induced significant, but incomplete (30-40%) killing of DO11.10 T cells in this location. These results document the abilities of CD95L-transduced DC to trigger apoptosis of naive T cells in an Ag-specific manner, to overrule T cell activation signals delivered by conventional DC, and to reduce local frequencies of Ag-reactive T cells in vivo. Our data also uncover two major limitations (relatively low homing efficiency and incomplete elimination of Ag-reactive T cells) that remain to be overcome for clinical application of CD95L-transduced DC strategy.