To increase (tumor) vaccine efficacy, there is an urgent need for phenotypic and functional characterization of human dendritic cell (DC) subsets residing in lymphoid tissues. In this study we identified and functionally tested 4 human conventional DC (cDC) subsets within skin-draining sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) from early-stage melanoma patients. These SLNs were all tumor negative and were removed on average 44 days after excision of the primary melanoma. As such, they were considered representative of steady-state conditions. On comparison with skin-migrated cDC, 2 CD1a ؉ subsets were identified as most likely skin-derived CD11c int Langerhans cells (LC) with intracellular langerin and E-cadherin expression or as CD11c hi dermal DCs with variable expression of langerin. Two other CD1a ؊ LNresiding cDC subsets were characterized as CD14 ؊ BDCA3 hi CD103 ؊ and CD14 ؉ BDCA3 lo CD103 ؉ , respectively. Whereas the CD1a ؉ skin-derived subsets displayed greater levels of phenotypic maturation, they were associated with lower levels of inflammatory cytokine release and were inferior in terms of allogeneic T-cell priming and IFN␥ induction. Thus, despite their higher maturation state, skin-derived cDCs (and LCs in particular) proved inferior T-cell activators compared with the CD1a ؊ cDC subsets residing in melanoma-draining LNs. These observations should be considered in the design of DC-targeting immunotherapies. (Blood. 2011;118(9):2502-2510)
IntroductionDendritic cells (DCs) are the most powerful APCs and play critical roles in keeping the balance between immune tolerance and activation. DCs are therefore also important for starting an efficient antitumor immune response and are seen as promising targeting candidates for tumor immunotherapy strategies. 1,2 Current DCbased immunotherapies generally use ex vivo-generated autologous monocyte-derived or CD34 ϩ hematopoietic precursorderived DCs. 2,3 Despite occasionally observed clinical benefits from DC-based vaccination, there is a large gap between the actual and expected efficacy of such trials on the basis of in vivo animal experiments. 4 Many questions remain as to which DC type to use, how to stimulate them, or where best to administer the DCs to achieve vaccination with mature, migratory, and Th1-inducing DCs that provoke an efficient antitumor immune response. [5][6][7] An ever-increasing insight in specialized functions of murine DC subsets is sadly mirrored by a lack of knowledge on how human DCs relate to mouse DCs and whether subsets that have been identified in mice have a (phenotypically different, but functionally equivalent) counterpart in humans. 4,[8][9][10][11] In particular the interrelationship between nonplasmacytoid, conventional DC (cDC) subsets has been obscure, in large part because of their plasticity and dynamic changes in their differentiation and maturation state, which is accompanied by shifts in associated phenotypic markers. 12 In mice, extensive DC-subset analyses have been performed through the use of transgenic models, the ability ...