IntroductionDendritic cells (DCs) play pivotal roles in the initiation, regulation, and maintenance of immune responses. 1 Activation of DCs through toll-like receptors (TLRs) for "infectious nonself" or other "danger" signals normally initiates a process of cellular differentiation resulting in "mature" DCs capable of stimulating T-cell and natural killer (NK)-cell responses. It has also been proposed that DCs are intimately involved in the prevention of inappropriate immune responses to "self"-antigens. 2 How this is achieved is not well known, but it is clear that DCs in a quiescent "immature" state can potentially control autoimmune attacks, through secretion of immunosuppressive cytokines such as IL-10 or TGF-, for example, or by controlling the induction of CD4 ϩ CD25 ϩ regulatory T cells.Recent studies have suggested a role for human leukocyte Ig-like receptors (LILRs, also known as ILT, LIR, or CD85) in regulating the function of myeloid cells, potentially implicating these molecules in the control of immune responses. [3][4][5] LILRs are encoded by a set of genes within the leukocyte receptor cluster on chromosome 19q13.4, adjacent to the killer Ig-like receptor (KIR) genes that are responsible for controlling NK-and CD8 T-cell survival and effector functions. 6 Similar to the KIR, the only known ligands for certain LILR molecules are "self"-HLA class I molecules. Ligation of these receptors results either in diminution of intracellular signaling by ITIM-associated phosphatase activity for inhibitory receptors with a long cytoplasmic tail or in ITAMassociated signaling through adaptor molecules recruited by activating receptors with a short cytoplasmic tail.Unlike KIRs, which are expressed clonally to form a variegated repertoire by NK cells, LILR molecules appear to be almost ubiquitously expressed by myeloid cells including most types of DCs, with the exception of plasmacytoid DCs. 7 Typically, human DCs for experimental and/or therapeutic purposes are obtained by culturing monocytes in defined cytokines, followed by maturation with TLR agonists such as LPS and/or other stimuli. 8 Here we demonstrate that continuous ligation of the inhibitory receptor LILRB1 (ILT2, LIR1, CD85j) 9 by mimics of "self"-MHC molecules dramatically alters the cellular differentiation program and subsequent responses to the "infectious nonself" TLR agonist LPS, the capacity to induce and regulate T-cell responses, and susceptibility to cell death.
Methods
Generation of monocyte-derived DCsDCs were derived from peripheral blood monocytes by culture for 6 days in RPMI 1640 containing penicillin (100 U/mL), streptomycin (100 g/mL), and 1% autologous plasma, 50 ng/mL recombinant human granulocytemacrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF; Peprotech, London, United Kingdom), and 50 ng/mL recombinant human IL-4 (Peprotech). Half of the medium was replaced with fresh cytokines every 2 days until day 6 of culture, when bacterial LPS (Sigma, Poole, United Kingdom) was added to a concentration of 1 ng/mL for 24 hours as required.To...