The maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) allows these antigen-presenting cells to initiate immunity. We pursued this concept in situ by studying the adjuvant action of α-galactosylceramide (αGalCer) in mice. A single i.v. injection of glycolipid induced the full maturation of splenic DCs, beginning within 4 h. Maturation was manifest by marked increases in costimulator and major histocompatibility complex class II expression, interferon (IFN)-γ production, and stimulation of the mixed leukocyte reaction. These changes were not induced directly by αGalCer but required natural killer T (NKT) cells acting independently of the MyD88 adaptor protein. To establish that DC maturation was responsible for the adjuvant role of αGalCer, mice were given αGalCer together with soluble or cell-associated ovalbumin antigen. Th1 type CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses developed, and the mice became resistant to challenge with ovalbumin-expressing tumor. DCs from mice given ovalbumin plus adjuvant, but not the non-DCs, stimulated ovalbumin-specific proliferative responses and importantly, induced antigen-specific, IFN-γ producing, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells upon transfer into naive animals. In the latter instance, immune priming did not require further exposure to ovalbumin, αGalCer, NKT, or NK cells. Therefore a single dose of αGalCer i.v. rapidly stimulates the full maturation of DCs in situ, and this accounts for the induction of combined Th1 CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity to a coadministered protein.

Dendritic cell (DC) maturation is an innate response that leads to adaptive immunity to coadministered proteins. To begin to identify underlying mechanisms in intact lymphoid tissues, we studied α-galactosylceramide. This glycolipid activates innate Vα14+ natural killer T cell (NKT) lymphocytes, which drive DC maturation and T cell responses to ovalbumin antigen. Hours after giving glycolipid i.v., tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–α and interferon (IFN)-γ were released primarily by DCs. These cytokines induced rapid surface remodeling of DCs, including increased CD80/86 costimulatory molecules. Surprisingly, DCs from CD40−/− and CD40L−/− mice did not elicit CD4+ and CD8+ T cell immunity, even though the DCs exhibited presented ovalbumin on major histocompatibility complex class I and II products and expressed high levels of CD80/86. Likewise, an injection of TNF-α up-regulated CD80/86 on DCs, but CD40 was required for immunity. CD40 was needed for DC interleukin (IL)-12 production, but IL-12p40−/− mice generated normal ovalbumin-specific responses. Therefore, the link between innate and adaptive immunity via splenic DCs and innate NKT cells has several components under distinct controls: antigen presentation in the steady state, increases in costimulatory molecules dependent on inflammatory cytokines, and a distinct CD40/CD40L signal that functions together with antigen presentation (“signal one”) and costimulation (“signal two”) to generate functioning CD4+ T helper cell 1 and CD8+ cytolytic T lymphocytes.

There was an error published in J. Cell Sci. 120, 929-942. We apologise for the incorrect publication of a reference, for which the wrong year, title and journal details were given. The correct reference is shown below.

Crabtree MJ, Smith CL, Lam G, Goligorsky MS, Gross SS. Ratio of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobiopterin to 7,8-dihydrobiopterin in endothelial cells determines glucose-elicited changes in NO vs. superoxide production by eNOS. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 294: H1530-H1540, 2008. First published January 11, 2008 doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00823.2007 is an essential cofactor of nitric oxide synthases (NOSs). Oxidation of BH4, in the setting of diabetes and other chronic vasoinflammatory conditions, can cause cofactor insufficiency and uncoupling of endothelial NOS (eNOS), manifest by a switch from nitric oxide (NO) to superoxide production. Here we tested the hypothesis that eNOS uncoupling is not simply a consequence of BH4 insufficiency, but rather results from a diminished ratio of BH4 vs. its catalytically incompetent oxidation product, 7,8-dihydrobiopterin (BH2). In support of this hypothesis, [ 3 H]BH4 binding studies revealed that BH4 and BH2 bind eNOS with equal affinity (Kd Ϸ 80 nM) and BH2 can rapidly and efficiently replace BH4 in preformed eNOS-BH4 complexes. Whereas the total biopterin pool of murine endothelial cells (ECs) was unaffected by 48-h exposure to diabetic glucose levels (30 mM), BH2 levels increased from undetectable to 40% of total biopterin. This BH2 accumulation was associated with diminished calcium ionophore-evoked NO activity and accelerated superoxide production. Since superoxide production was suppressed by NOS inhibitor treatment, eNOS was implicated as a principal superoxide source. Importantly, BH4 supplementation of ECs (in low and high glucose-containing media) revealed that calcium ionophore-evoked NO bioactivity correlates with intracellular BH4: BH2 and not absolute intracellular levels of BH4. Reciprocally, superoxide production was found to negatively correlate with intracellular BH4:BH2. Hyperglycemia-associated BH4 oxidation and NO insufficiency was recapitulated in vivo, in the Zucker diabetic fatty rat model of type 2 diabetes. Together, these findings implicate diminished intracellular BH4:BH2, rather than BH4 depletion per se, as the molecular trigger for NO insufficiency in diabetes. nitric oxide; diabetes; endothelial dysfunction NITRIC OXIDE (NO) is a biological messenger that is produced by enzymes of the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) gene family, comprising endothelial (eNOS), inducible (iNOS), and neuronal (nNOS) isoforms. In the vasculature, eNOS-derived NO plays a pivotal role in physiological regulation of vessel tone and inflammatory status (58). Diminished availability of eNOS-derived NO is common to chronic vascular disorders that share endothelial dysfunction as a hallmark, e.g., diabetes (11,37,60), hypertension (28), and atherosclerosis (28,46). While the mechanistic basis for this attenuated NO bioavailability is uncertain, both slowed NO synthesis and accelerated NO scavenging by reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated as causes (16). In contrast, levels of eNOS protein are typically unchanged or paradoxically increased. Oxidative stress, imposed by exce...

In a significant proportion of melanoma patients, CTL specific for the melan-A26/7–35 epitope can be detected in peripheral blood using HLA-A2/peptide tetramers. However, the functional capacity of these CTL has been controversial, since although they prove to be effective killers after in vitro expansion, in some patients they have blunted activation responses ex vivo. We used phenotypic markers to characterize melan-A tetramer+ cells in both normal individuals and melanoma patients, and correlated these markers with ex vivo assays of CTL function. Melanoma patients with detectable melan-A tetramer+ cells in peripheral blood fell into two groups. Seven of thirteen patients had a CCR7+ CD45R0− CD45RA+ phenotype, the same as that found in some healthy controls, and this phenotype was associated with a lack of response to melan-A peptide ex vivo. In the remaining six patients, melan-A tetramer+ cells were shifted toward a CCR7− CD45R0+ CD45RA− phenotype, and responses to melan-A peptide could be readily demonstrated ex vivo. When lymph nodes infiltrated by melan-A-expressing melanoma cells were examined, a similar dichotomy emerged. These findings demonstrate that activation of melan-A-specific CTL occurs in only some patients with malignant melanoma, and that only patients with such active immune responses are capable of responding to Ag in ex vivo assays.