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Department of Dermatology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| Abstract |
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revealed
that the release of IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-
was enhanced by
UVB. In comparison with HLA-DR-low LC, HLA-DR-high LC were the
principal IL-8 producers as demonstrated by intracellular cytokine
staining, and they retained more accessory function. There was no
detectable secretion of IL-12 p70, and IL-18 production was neither
affected by any stimulus nor by UVB. These results suggest a dual
action of UVB on LC when irradiated in situ: 1) immunosuppression by
preventing maturation and inducing apoptotic cell death in part of LC,
and 2) immunopotentiation by enhancing the up-regulation of
costimulatory molecules and the production of proinflammatory cytokines
in another part. | Introduction |
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Langerhans cells (LC)2 are dendritic cells (DC) in the skin and play a major role in initiating skin immune responses by taking up foreign Ags in the epidermis, processing and presenting them on their MHC class II molecules during their migration into regional lymph nodes, and by transducing activation signals to the effector T cells via costimulatory molecules (reviewed in Ref. 4 and 5).
Because LC are located in the suprabasal layer of the epidermis into which UVB penetrates easily, they are considered to be one of the main targets of UVB irradiation. Morphological studies demonstrated that high doses of UVB (4004000 J/m2) induced a profound decrease in the LC number in the epidermis. The remaining LC showed abnormal morphology: they appeared rounded and swollen and were deficient in their dendritic processes (1, 6, 7), although some LC were enlarged with elongated dendrites when lower doses of UVB (120 or 2000 J/m2) were applied (8, 9). It was found in vitro that UVB inhibited the capacity of LC to stimulate allogeneic T cells (10, 11, 12). UVB also reduced the expression of costimulatory molecules on LC such as CD80 (B7-1), CD86 (B7-2) (13, 14, 15), and CD54 (ICAM-1) (16). In addition, in mouse models, UVB-treated LC failed to induce activation of Ag-specific Th1 clones leading to anergy (17, 18). These results suggest that LC are largely responsible for the immunosuppression observed after UVB irradiation in vivo, i.e., the reduction of contact hypersensitivity and for the induction of tolerance. However, several studies indicate that UVB-induced infiltrating dermal cells, especially CD11b+ macrophages, participate in inducing tolerance as well (19, 20).
To investigate the effect of UVB on LC in a system as close as possible to their natural in vivo circumstances, we have used a model in which human skin was irradiated ex vivo before analysis of LC function. In a previous paper, we showed that these LC retained their capacity of migration and T cell stimulation in spite of their DNA damage, although UVB-induced death occurred in a number of LC (21). In the present study, we focused on the changes of phenotype, the stage of apoptosis, and the capacity for cytokine production as well as T cell stimulation in LC, which had migrated from ex vivo-irradiated epidermis.
| Materials and Methods |
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Cells were cultured in IMDM (Life Technologies, Paisley, U.K.)
supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FCS (HyClone, Logan, UT) and
gentamicin (50 µg/ml; Sigma, St. Louis, MO). The mAb against the
following Ags were used: CD80 (clone IGH160) and CD86 (clone IGH226)
(Innogenetics, Ghent, Belgium); CD54 (clone RR1/1) and CD58 (LFA-3)
(clone TS2/9) (a gift from Dr. T. A. Springer, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, MA); CD50 (ICAM-3) (clone HP2/19) (a gift from Dr. F.
Sanchez-Madrid, Hospital de la Princesa, Madrid, Spain); CD83 (clone
HB-15a) (a gift from Dr. T. F. Tedder, Duke University Medical
Center, Durham, NC); CD1a (clone SK9) (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA);
CD40 (clone 5D12) (a gift from Dr. M. de Boer, Tanox Pharma BV,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands); CD95 (clone DX-2) (Biosource, Camarillo,
CA); as well as isotype controls (IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b) (Becton
Dickinson). Anti-HLA-DR (clone L243, unconjugated and FITC-conjugated)
(Becton Dickinson) was used to identify LC, and PE-conjugated goat
anti-mouse IgG (Southern Biotechnology Associates, Uithoorn, The
Netherlands) was used as a secondary Ab. FITC-conjugated annexin V was
a kind gift from Dr. C. P. Reutelingsperger (University of
Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands). J558L hybridoma cells
transfected with CD40 ligand (CD40L) as well as the untransfected
control cell line were a gift from Dr. P. Lane (University of
Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K.). Staphylococcal aureus Cowan strain I
(SAC) was purchased from Calbiochem (San Diego, CA). Human rIFN-
was
purchased from Boehringer Mannheim (Mannheim, Germany).
UVB source
Philips TL12 lamps (Philips, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) were used as a source of UVB, emitting UV in the range of 250400 nm primarily in the UVB region (290320 nm) with a peak at 315 nm. The UVB output was monitored with an SEE1240 UVB photodetector and IL443 phototherapy radiometer (International Light, Newburyport, MA) and was adjusted to 2.0 W/m2 at the target spot.
UVB irradiation of epidermal sheets ex vivo
Full-thickness human skin specimens were obtained from healthy female Caucasian subjects undergoing plastic surgery of the breast or abdomen. These specimens were shaved into slices of 0.2 mm thickness by using a dermatome, then the slices were rinsed three times with PBS. The skin slices were floated dermal side down on 10 ml of PBS in petri dishes. They were exposed to 200, 400, 800, or 1600 J/m2 of UVB, or were left unirradiated as controls. They were then transferred to petri dishes containing 10 ml of PBS with 0.2% dispase II (Boehringer Mannheim) and incubated for 30 min at 37°C to enable separation of the epidermis from the dermis. Epidermal sheets were rinsed in PBS and cultured in culture medium for 18 or 42 h. Cells that had migrated out of the epidermal sheets were collected from the culture medium. The numbers of the migrated cells were counted and were further processed for flow cytometry or cytokine production studies. For the determination of the viability of the migrated LC, cells were stained with FITC-conjugated anti-HLA-DR to identify LC and analyzed by flow cytometry adding propidium iodide (PI) to discriminate dead cells. The viability LC was calculated as follows: viability = (number of HLA-DR+PI- cells/total number of HLA-DR+ cells) x 100%.
Flow cytometric analysis of cell-surface markers
Epidermal sheet-derived cells were successively stained with the primary mAb, PE-conjugated secondary Ab, and FITC-labeled anti-HLA-DR Ab at 4°C for 30 min. Following each step, the cells were washed with washing buffer (PBS containing 1% FCS and 0.1% NaN3). After the final wash, cells were resuspended in a small volume of washing buffer for analysis. The three-color flow cytometric measurements were performed with a FACScalibur (Becton Dickinson). Dead cells determined as PI-positive cells were electronically gated out using the FL3 channel; the gated cells were computed in a list mode and analyzed with CellQuest software (Becton Dickinson).
For the annexin V binding assay, the cells were first stained with anti-HLA-DR Ab and PE-conjugated secondary Ab as above. Cells were then washed with a buffer containing 10 mM HEPES, 150 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 1 mM MgCl2, and 1.8 mM CaCl2 supplemented by 1% FCS to enable binding of annexin V to the apoptotic cell surface, then incubated with 5 µg/ml of FITC-conjugated annexin V for 20 min at 4°C. Cells were washed again and resuspended in a small volume of the same buffer. PI was added just before FACS analysis. As a negative control, cells washed with PBS containing 1% FCS and 2 mM EDTA were also analyzed similarly. The annexin V-positive cells that were PI-negative were considered to be apoptotic.
Stimulation of LC and cytokine analysis by ELISA
Cells that had migrated from epidermal sheets of (un)irradiated
skin were collected after 18 h of culture. LC were enriched from
these suspensions by means of anti-HLA-DR-coupled paramagnetic
microbeads (magnetic cell separation system (MACS), Miltenyi Biotec,
Gladbach, Germany) according to the manufacturers protocol. The
enriched LC (5.0 x 104/well), as well as
the same number of the cells from LC-depleted fraction for controls,
were stimulated in 200 µl in a 96-well microtiter plate (Costar,
Cambridge, MA) with CD40L-transfected murine plasmacytoma cells
(J558-CD40L) (22) (ratio 1:5) or untransfected J558 in the
presence of 1000 U/ml IFN-
for 18 or 72 h. In some series of
experiments, SAC (75 µg/ml) was used instead of J558-CD40L. Culture
supernatants were harvested and stored at -20°C until use. The
concentrations of the following cytokines were measured by ELISA:
IL-1ß (Endogen, Woburn, MA; sensitivity 5 pg/ml), IL-6 (Medgenix,
Fleurus, Belgium; sensitivity 20 pg/ml), IL-8 (Medgenix; sensitivity 28
pg/ml), IL-12 (PharMingen, San Diego, CA; sensitivity 32 pg/ml), IL-18
(R&D Systems, Abingdon, U.K.; sensitivity 40 pg/ml), and TNF-
(Biosource, Camarillo, CA; sensitivity 20 pg/ml).
RNA isolation and RT-PCR analysis
LC were harvested, enriched, and stimulated with CD40L plus
IFN-
as described above. After 4 h of stimulation, cells were
lysed in 0.5 ml TRIzol reagent (Life Technologies), and RNA was
isolated according to the manufacturers protocol. The reverse
transcription of the extracted RNA and PCR conditions have been
described in detail previously (23). The specific primer
sets were synthesized in our laboratory by an oligosynthesizer: IL-12
p35 forward primer 5'-GTCAGCAACATGCTCCAGAA-3' (nt 345364), IL-12 p35
reverse primer 5'-TTCATGGTCTTGAACTCCACC-3' (nt 628608); IL-12 p40
forward primer 5'-ACCAGAGCAGTGAGGTCTTAGG-3' (nt 201222), IL-12
p40 reverse primer 5'-CAGAAGAGCCTCTGCTGCTT-3' (nt 503484); GAPDH
forward primer 5'-CGAGATCCCTCCAAAATCAA-3' (nt 298317), and GAPDH
reverse primer 5'-AGGTCAGGTCCACCACTGAC-3' (nt 799780). The PCR
products were visualized by ethidium bromide staining after agarose gel
electrophoresis. The products were of the expected size, and the
specificity was confirmed by sequence analysis.
Flow cytometric analysis of intracellular cytokines
LC were harvested, enriched, and stimulated with CD40L plus
IFN-
as described above in the presence of 3 µg/ml of brefeldin A
(Sigma). After 18 h of culture, cells were harvested, washed in
PBS, and stained with FITC-conjugated anti-HLA-DR for 15 min on
ice. Intracellular cytokine staining was performed using anti-IL-6
PE, anti-IL-8 PE as well as IgG1 PE isotype control (Becton
Dickinson) according to the manufacturers protocol (Becton
Dickinson). In the analysis of the acquired data, LC were
electronically separated from contaminating J558(-CD40L) cells using
FL1-gate settings as HLA-DR+ cells as well as
forward scatter (FSC)/side scatter (SSC) gatings.
FACS of the two LC subpopulations and the mixed lymphocyte-LC reaction
Skin sheets were irradiated and the epidermis was cultured as described above. After 42 h of culture, migrating cells were harvested and stained with FITC-anti-HLA-DR for 20 min at 4°C. After washing with PBS containing 2 mM EDTA and 1% FCS, cells were sorted using FACS Vantage SE (Becton Dickinson). Gate settings were made using FSC/FL1 dot plot, and, after sorting, the sorted cells were reanalyzed for purity as well as viability using PI. Allogeneic T cells were purified from PBMC using MACS pan T cell isolation kit (Miltenyi Biotec) reaching a purity of >97% CD3+ and <3% HLA-DR+. Graded numbers of viable LC (0.031.0 x 104) were cultured with 1.5 x 105 T cells for 5 days in round-bottom 96-well plates, and, during the last 6 h, 0.3 µCi of [3H]TdR (Amersham, Aylesbury, U.K.) was added to each well. Incorporation of the isotope was measured by liquid scintillation counter.
Statistics
Statistical analysis was performed using the Students t test for unpaired samples, and a value of p < 0.05 was considered significant.
| Results |
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In the first series of experiments, we investigated whether UVB
irradiation affects the number and viability of LC, which spontaneously
migrated from epidermal sheets during culture. To test this, skin was
irradiated ex vivo with serial single doses of UVB (0, 200, 400, 800,
or 1600 J/m2), and, after dispase digestion,
epidermal sheets were cultured for 18 or 42 h while floating on
the medium with the dermal-side down. Cells that had migrated from
epidermal sheets into culture media were collected and counted, and the
percentage of LC (estimated as HLA-DR-positive cells) as well as
viability were analyzed by flow cytometry. The other components
consisted of 510% CD3+ T cells, <1%
CD11b+ cells, and
CD3-CD11b-HLA-DR-
cells, probably keratinocytes (KC) as judged by morphology. Although
there was some variation between the experiments, the number of viable
LC showed a tendency to increase by low doses of UVB irradiation
compared with unirradiated controls, but these numbers decreased after
high doses (Table I
). In cases of low
doses of UVB as well as unirradiated controls, the number of viable LC
increased 42 h after the irradiation in comparison with that after
18 h, but higher doses of irradiation rendered the number of LC to
be lower after 42 h of culture. Due to a large variation, no clear
effect on the viability of the migrated LC was observed 18 h after
irradiation, but at 42 h postirradiation, a clear
dose-dependent decrease of LC viability was found.
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The next aim was to determine whether UVB irradiation affects the
phenotypical maturation of LC, which normally occurs during in vitro
culture, by means of flow cytometry (Fig. 1
). We found that after irradiation two
subpopulations of LC could be distinguished as judged by HLA-DR
expression: one was exhibiting a reduced HLA-DR expression whereas the
other retained a normal high HLA-DR level. The relative number of
HLA-DR-low LC increased in UVB dose-dependent way, and that of the
HLA-DR-high LC decreased concomitantly. These two LC subsets could most
clearly be distinguished 42 h after irradiation, especially upon
exposure to high doses of UVB. The FSC/SSC profiles (Fig. 1
) showed
that the former LC subset was smaller in size as compared with the
latter LC subset and the unirradiated controls.
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The above results indicated that LC either failed to mature or
were stimulated in their maturation after UVB irradiation. Because UVB
irradiation is known to induce apoptosis of epidermal cells, for
instance via CD95/CD95L pathway, we compared if there was any
difference in the stage of apoptosis between the two LC subpopulations,
using annexin V binding as indicator for apoptosis (Fig. 4
). The HLA-DR-low LC subpopulation were
induced to express strongly annexin V binding (MFI: 1200) in a UVB
dose-dependent manner at 18 h postirradiation, although part of
HLA-DR-low LC showed a very weak expression of annexin V (MFI: 1016).
HLA-DR-high LC also shifted slightly positive for annexinV (MFI:
1220) as compared with unirradiated control (MFI: 8), demonstrating
that UVB caused apoptotic effect on this LC subset as well. Some part
of HLA-DR- KC also showed annexin V binding
after irradiation. To check if the Fas/FasL pathway was involved in
UVB-induced apoptosis of the HLA-DR-low LC subset, we studied the
expression of CD95. As shown in Fig. 4
B, CD95 expression was
already present in unirradiated LC (MFI: 40) and was up-regulated by
UVB irradiation in HLA-DR-high LC subset (MFI: 80). In addition, most
of HLA-DR- KC were clearly positive for CD95. In
contrast, CD95 remained low in some of the HLA-DR-low LC subset (like
freshly isolated LC, data not shown). Similar changes were observed
42 h after irradiation except for the observation that the annexin
V binding of LC from unirradiated controls became slightly positive
(data not shown). We also determined if there was any difference in the
viability of each of the migrating LC subsets (Table II
). Although the dose of UVB irradiation
did not seem to affect the viability in either HLA-DR-high or
HLA-DR-low LC subset 18 h after irradiation, high doses of UVB
decreased the viability of both LC subsets 42 h after irradiation.
The HLA-DR-low LC showed significantly less viability than the other LC
subset at both 18 and 42 h upon UVB exposure
(p < 0.0001 in both cases). These results
indicate that the HLA-DR-low LC subpopulation was more susceptible to
apoptotic cell death than HLA-DR-high LC after UVB irradiation and that
this effect was not likely to be mediated through Fas/Fas ligand
pathways.
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We next determined the effect of UVB on the cytokine-producing
capacity of LC. For that purpose, LC were enriched from the cells that
had migrated from the epidermal sheets using paramagnetic microbeads
coated with anti-HLA-DR Ab. The purity of the enriched LC ranged
between 71 and 97% (data from 11 independent experiments, not shown).
Thereafter these LC were stimulated with a CD40L-transfected cell line
in the presence of IFN-
. As shown in Table III
, there was no detectable production
of IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-12, and TNF-
in the 18-h culture supernatant of
unstimulated LC from the unirradiated epidermis, whereas IL-8 and IL-18
were clearly present. Stimulation of these LC with CD40L-transfected
cells in the presence of IFN-
induced the production of IL-6 and
TNF-
and the enhancement of IL-8 production by LC, but IL-1ß
remained undetectable. The IL-18 secretion was not affected by this
stimulation.
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could be
detected in unstimulated LC cultures. Moreover, the up-regulation of
the release of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-
, after stimulation by CD40L plus
IFN-
, was enhanced by a low-dose (400 J/m2)
UVB treatment as compared with the release by unirradiated LC, but
IL-1ß release was not affected by this stimulation. A higher dose
(800 J/m2) of UVB seemed to perturb the secretion
of these cytokines, although there was an increased secretion of
IL-1ß. Neither the stimulation of LC with CD40L nor UVB irradiation
had any clear effect on the IL-18 release by LC, and the level of IL-18
was not affected after 72 h of culture. In clear contrast, a
marginal level of IL-8 and TNF-
was measured in the LC-depleted
fraction, consisting mainly of KC. IL-18 was detectable in some
unirradiated samples, but mostly after irradiation. IL-12 p70 protein
could not be detected in supernatants from LC or KC, even after
stimulation by CD40L plus IFN-
and after prolonged
culture, although mRNA for both IL-12 p35 and IL-12 p40 was
clearly present in LC-enriched fractions and both seemed to be
up-regulated by stimulation with CD40L or UVB (Fig. 5
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enhanced the percentage as well as the MFI of
IL-8+ cells, especially in the HLA-DR-high LC
subpopulation (Fig. 6
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HLA-DR-high LC from UVB-exposed skin retain their capacity to stimulate T cells
In the last series of experiments, we compared the functional
capacity between the two LC subpopulations derived from UVB-irradiated
epidermis. For that purpose, epidermal sheets from unirradiated or
UVB-irradiated skin were cultured for 42 h, and cells migrated
from the sheets were collected, stained with FITC-conjugated
anti-HLA-DR Ab, and sorted using FACS Vantage SE. The sorted cells
were reanalyzed for their purity and viability (Fig. 7
). After sorting, the viability of the
sorted LC decreased rapidly in HLA-DR-low LC (214% in HLA-DR-low LC,
6581% in HLA-DR-high LC, in contrast to 8291% in LC from
unirradiated skin, data from four independent experiments) as compared
with the viability in LC before sorting (Table II
). After the
calculation of the viability, graded numbers of viable LC from either
of the two LC subsets as well as LC derived from unirradiated skin were
cultured with purified allogeneic T cells. As demonstrated in Fig. 8
, the HLA-DR-low LC subset was
significantly less able to stimulate T cells as compared with
HLA-DR-high LC or LC from unirradiated skin. The stimulatory function
of HLA-DR-high LC seemed to be less than LC from unirradiated skin, but
this was not significant at some points in the compared range. These
findings suggest that HLA-DR-high LC have a better functional capacity
than the HLA-DR-low LC subset.
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| Discussion |
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We observed that the number of migrating LC increased by UVB
irradiation, although regressed after high doses of UVB. After low
doses of UVB, as well as in unirradiated control cultures, the number
of viable LC increased 42 h after the irradiation in comparison
with that after 18 h, probably because of the continuous migration
of LC during the prolonged culture period. However, high doses of
irradiation rendered viable LC numbers to be lower after 42 h of
culture than those after 18 h despite the prolonged culture,
probably due to the cytotoxic effect of UVB on LC as indicated by less
viability (Table I
). These results are consistent with those of Tang
and Udey demonstrating that in vitro exposure of LC to UVB was
ultimately cytotoxic (25).
FACS analysis of the LC migrated from irradiated epidermal sheets demonstrated bidirectional changes in the profiles of LC. One subpopulation of LC had become small in size with low HLA-DR expression, and was unable to up-regulate costimulatory molecules and surrendered to apoptotic cell death. The other LC was larger in size and HLA-DR-high with enhanced up-regulation of costimulatory molecules. Corresponding with our observations, the occurrence of the subpopulation of large LC in situ was previously reported in two independent studies in mice (8, 9). In addition, Laihia and Jansen (26) recently reported the up-regulation of costimulatory molecules on human LC remaining within the epidermis after solar-simulating irradiation. The mechanisms for the dual effects of UVB are not certain, but the anatomical location of LC within the epidermis might be responsible, i.e., some LC being located in the upper portion of epidermis receiving more UV damage vs others settled in the deeper suprabasal layers covered with more layers of KC receiving less damage. Another explanation might be the intrinsic difference in the state of maturation among the LC in situ. Analysis by flow cytometry revealed that different subpopulations of LC exist within the freshly prepared LC with respect to HLA-DR intensity, as well as signal transduction properties (27), and to the phases of the cell cycle (28).
UVB also affects the cytokine levels in the epidermal microenvironment
in which LC reside. Surrounding irradiated KC can produce various kinds
of cytokines: GM-CSF, TNF-
, as well as IL-1ß are reported to
promote the up-regulation of B7-1 and B7-2 on murine LC (29, 30), and these cytokines are also involved in inducing or
enhancing migration of LC from epidermis (31, 32, 33). The
production of the immunosuppressive factor IL-10 is also strongly
up-regulated in UVB-exposed skin due to the influx of macrophages
(34). IL-10 is able to inhibit the up-regulation of
costimulatory molecules on murine (30) as well as human
(35) LC after in vitro culture. However, the addition of
the culture supernatant from UVB-irradiated epidermal sheets (50% v/v)
as well as the addition of recombinant IL-1ß and TNF-
(up to 10
ng/ml), GM-CSF (up to 500 ng/ml), or a mixture of these cytokines to
the culture media of unirradiated epidermal sheets did not induce the
two LC subpopulations (data not shown). IL-10 was not detectable in the
supernatant of epidermal sheet cultures derived from both
UVB-irradiated and unirradiated skin (by ELISA, detection limit: 50
pg/ml, data not shown). Taken together, we conclude that UVB is
responsible for the induction of two LC subpopulations. The
up-regulation of costimulatory molecule on HLA-DR-high LC might be
caused by a direct effect of mild UVB irradiation in a dose below the
threshold causing cytostatic/cytotoxic effects, or by indirect effects
via cytokines secreted by KC or LC themselves.
We found that the HLA-DR-low LC subpopulation was more susceptible to
UVB-induced apoptotic cell death than HLA-DR-high LC as determined by
higher annexin V binding and low viability. It is reported that the
CD95 system is involved in UVB-induced apoptosis (36, 37, 38)
and immune tolerance (39). However, apoptosis observed in
HLA-DR-low LC did not seem to be caused via CD95 pathway because there
was little up-regulation of CD95 in the HLA-DR-low LC subset as
compared with the HLA-DR-high counterpart. Other mechanisms, such as
p53/bcl-2 (40) or TNF-
/TNF receptor p55 pathway
(41), might also be involved in UVB-induced apoptosis of
LC, which should be studied in forthcoming experiments.
Although the secretion of cytokines such as IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10,
IL-12, IL-13, and TNF-
by human blood-derived DC were well
investigated (42, 43, 44, 45, 46), there has been few reports
concerning cytokine production by epidermal LC, mainly due to the
difficulty of the isolation and the very low yield of LC. Murine LC can
produce IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-12, IL-18, GM-CSF, TNF-
, macrophage
inflammatory protein-1
, and macrophage inflammatory protein-2
(47, 48, 49, 50), but so far there were few reports concerning
cytokine production by human LC. It has been demonstrated that IL-1
(51), IL-1ß (51, 52), IL-8
(51), TNF-
(53), and a very low amount of
IL-12 p40 (54) protein are produced by human LC. We
demonstrated that human LC can also secrete IL-6 and IL-18 and that the
production of IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-
was enhanced by UVB.
Although KC, which contaminate the enriched LC, can also secrete these
cytokines (55, 56, 57), we may conclude that they were indeed
produced by LC by comparing the cytokine level in the LC-enriched and
LC-depleted fractions.
We could argue that HLA-DR-high LC are the major source of the
proinflammatory cytokines as judged by a higher percentage, as well as
MFI, of IL-8+ LC (Fig. 6
), though IL-6 in LC was
not detectable by the intracellular cytokine-staining method, probably
due to a lower detection limit in comparison to the ELISA. Although
very few numbers of HLA-DR-low LC were found in the cells from
unirradiated skin just after migration from epidermis (Fig. 1
),
significant numbers of these cells were observed in this population
after enrichment for LC and subsequent culture for 18 h (Fig. 6
).
This is considered as the spontaneous apoptotic change of the purified
LC following in vitro culture as reported (58). However,
this apoptotic process itself did not induce the secretion of the
proinflammatory cytokines, except for low amount of IL-8, without
additional stimulation by CD40L (Table III
).
Unexpectedly, we could not measure any IL-12 p70 protein in the
supernatant from the cultured LC, even upon stimulation by bacterial
Ags, or CD40L and IFN-
, which is considered to be the most potent
stimuli for DC to produce IL-12 (46, 59). Interestingly,
we could detect mRNA of both p35 and p40 of IL-12 in LC by RT-PCR (Fig. 5
), indicating that LC might be able to produce IL-12 p70. Prolonged
culture up to 72 h, which was suitable to detect IL-12 p70
secretion in a murine LC-like immature DC line (60), did
not result in detectable IL-12 release in our case. There may be
several explanations: 1) LC need additional stimuli to secrete IL-12
p70 protein-like primary blood DC, which require preincubation with
GM-CSF and IL-4 (59); 2) our LC number (5 x
104/well) was too small to reach the detection
limit of the ELISA (32 pg/ml); 3) during the preparation and the
culture of epidermal sheets, LC were already affected by inhibitory
signals, like PGE2 which was reported to prohibit
DC from secreting IL-12 (61). However, a recent study has
demonstrated no presence of IL-12 in the suction blister fluid up to
72 h after 3 MED (minimal erythemal dose) of solar-simulated
irradiation, suggesting that little or no synthesis of IL-12 in human
skin occurs in vivo as well (62). IL-18 secretion by LC
was not influenced by UVB, bacterial Ag-stimulation, or CD40
ligation.
These results imply that the selective suppression of Th1 cells by UVB-irradiated LC (17, 18) may not be ascribed to their inability to secrete IL-12 or IL-18. Other factors such as IL-6, reported to polarize naive CD4+ T cells to effector Th2 cells (63), might be responsible as we observed up-regulation of IL-6 secretion by UVB-irradiated LC.
HLA-DR-high LC from UVB-irradiated skin exhibited significantly higher
T cell stimulatory function than the HLA-DR-low LC (Fig. 8
). This is
probably owing to the low expression of costimulatory molecules in the
latter LC subset (Fig. 2
) as well as to a more rapid apoptotic change
(Fig. 4
). The accessory function of these HLA-DR-high LC was slightly
less than LC from unirradiated epidermis in spite of the enhanced
costimulatory molecules expression (Fig. 3
) and the enhanced secretion
of proinflammatory cytokines (Table III
). The reason was unclear, but
we speculate that this decrease could be due to the lower capability of
the HLA-DR-high LC to survive after cell sorting or during longer
culture period following UVB (25).
In summary, we found that irradiation of skin specimens ex vivo with low doses of UVB caused the development of clearly distinguishable HLA-DR-low and HLA-DR-high LC subpopulations. The former LC subset was prohibited to mature with their phenotype resembling freshly prepared LC and more susceptible to apoptotic cell death, whereas the latter LC subset underwent enhanced maturation with further up-regulation of costimulatory molecules such as B7-1, B7-2, ICAM-1, and CD40 than unirradiated controls. Furthermore, UVB enhanced the production of proinflammatory cytokines by the latter LC, which retained more accessory function than the former LC. We speculate that UV exposure in vivo causes various effects on LC, which could not merely be extrapolated from the data obtained in vitro. Comparative studies between in vitro- and ex vivo-irradiated LC are in progress in our laboratory.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Abbreviations used in this paper: LC, Langerhans cells; DC, dendritic cells; SAC, Staphylococcal aureus Cowan strain I; PI, propidium iodide; KC, keratinocytes; MFI, mean fluorescence intensity; CD40L, CD40 ligand; FSC, foward scatter; SSC, side scatter. ![]()
Received for publication April 20, 1999. Accepted for publication August 25, 1999.
| References |
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