Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in the tumor microenvironment (TME), the latter of which is known to affect disease progression in many human malignancies. Infiltration by mature, active DCs into the tumors confers an increase in immune activation and recruitment of disease-fighting immune effector cells and pathways. DCs are the preferential target of infiltrating T cells. Tumor cells, however, have means of suppressing DC function or of altering the TME in such a way that immune suppressive DC are recruited. Advances in understanding these changes have led to promising developments in cancer therapeutic strategies targeting tumor-infiltrating DCs in order to subdue their immunosuppressive functions and enhance their immune stimulatory capacity.

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The PD-1:PD-L1 immune signaling axis mediates suppression of T cell-dependent tumor immunity. PD-1 expression was recently found to be upregulated on tumor-infiltrating murine (CD11c+CD11b+CD8−CD209a+) and human (CD1c+CD19−) myeloid dendritic cells (TIDC), an innate immune cell type also implicated in immune escape. However, there is little knowledge concerning how PD-1 regulates innate immune cells. In the present study, we examined the role of PD-1 in TIDC derived from mice bearing ovarian tumors. Similar to lymphocytes, TIDC expression of pd-1 was associated with expression of the adapter protein SHP-2, which signals to NF-κB, however, in contrast to its role in lymphocytes, we found that expression of PD-1 in TIDC tonically paralyzed NF-kB activation. Further mechanistic investigations showed that PD-1 blocked NF-kB-dependent cytokine release in a SHP-2-dependent manner. Conversely, inhibition of NF-kB-mediated antigen presentation by PD-1 occurred independently of SHP-2. Collectively, our findings revealed that PD-1 acts in a distinct manner in innate immune cells compared to adaptive immune cells, prompting further investigations of the signaling pathways controlled by this central mediator of immune escape in cancer.