Thymic dendritic cells traffic to thymi of allogeneic recipients and prolong graft survival
Steven R. Duncan, … , Brian R. Lawson, Argyrios N. Theofilopoulos
Steven R. Duncan, … , Brian R. Lawson, Argyrios N. Theofilopoulos
Published March 15, 2002
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2002;109(6):755-764. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI12142.
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Article

Thymic dendritic cells traffic to thymi of allogeneic recipients and prolong graft survival

Abstract

We have demonstrated that murine thymic dendritic cells (DCs) isolated from donor mice have the capability to home to thymi of fully allogeneic recipients after intravenous injections, where they induce T cell deletions and prolong donor-strain airway and skin graft survival. In contrast, infused splenic DCs immigrated poorly to thymi, and did not affect graft survival. These findings suggest that preferential homing may be an important mechanistic difference among subpopulations of DCs that mediate immune functions and illustrate a novel methodology that could have utility for induction of specific immunologic nonreactivity to allografts, or other disease-associated antigens.

Authors

Steven R. Duncan, Nickolas G. Capetanakis, Brian R. Lawson, Argyrios N. Theofilopoulos

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Histologic evaluations of HAGs. (a) Hematoxylin and eosin–stained sectio...
Histologic evaluations of HAGs. (a) Hematoxylin and eosin–stained section of a typical (BALB.B × BALB/c)F1 allograft harvested 6 weeks after implantation in a TDC-treated (1.5 × 105 intravenous TDCs) BALB.B recipient. The mucin-filled airway lumen is denoted by an arrow, which points to viable epithelial mucosa. HAGs harvested from (b) Allogenic HAGs from recipients treated with donor-derived CD11c– thymic adherent cells (other TAC) show greater degrees of allograft rejection with squamous metaplasia and denudation. Allografts harvested from animals treated with (c) saline injections (controls) and (d) intravenous SDCs (1.5 × 105 cells) show epithelial destruction and airway obliteration. No beneficial effects of intravenous SDC treatments were seen at any dose tested (ranging up to 2.0 × 106 SDCs).