Comparison of Lung Dendritic Cells and B Cells in Stimulating Naive Antigen-Specific T Cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) are specialized APCs that are important in priming naive T cells and can be manipulated in vitro and in vivo to enhance immunizations against microorganisms and tumors. A limitation in the development of suitable immunotherapeutic vaccines for the lung is incomplete information on the role of DCs and other potential APCs in the lung in priming naive T cells. In the current study, we analyzed the relative contributions of murine lung DCs and B cells to process and present OVA to naive CD4+ OVA323-339-specific (DO11.10) T cells in vitro. We also examined their expression of MHC class II and accessory molecules before and after maturation in culture. Similar to DCs from other sites, freshly isolated lung DCs can process OVA, spontaneously up-regulate MHC class II and accessory molecules during overnight culture, and stimulate naive T cells in an Ag-specific manner. In contrast, freshly isolated lung B cells were unable to both process and present native OVA. Furthermore, under conditions of limited OVA323-339 peptide exposure, B cells had a significantly diminished capacity to stimulate T cells, and this correlated with a decreased density of both MHC class II and important costimulatory molecules as compared with lung DCs.