SummaryInactivated or subunit virus preparations have been excellent vaccines for inducing antibody responses . Generation of cytolytic T cell responses, however, is thought to require replicating virus, primarily to provide sufficiently large amounts of cytoplasmic proteins for processing and presentation on major histocompatibility complex class I molecules by antigen-presenting cells. Potent human CD8+ cytolytic T cell responses to live replicating influenza A virus are generated when dendritic cells are used as the antigen-presenting cells . Here, we demonstrate that dendritic cells pulsed with poorly replicating, heat-or ultraviolet-inactivated influenza virus, induce equally strong CD8 + cytolytic T lymphocyte responses. The cytotoxic T lymphocytes are generated in the apparent absence ofCD4 + helper cells or exogenous cytokines . Active viral protein synthesis is not required to charge class I molecules on dendritic cells . When pulsed with inactivated virus, G1% of dendritic cells express nonstructural protein 1, which is only synthesized in the infectious cycle. To be optimally effective, however, the inactivated virus must retain its fusogenic activity, and presumably access the cytoplasm of dendritic cells . The data indicate, therefore, that dendritic cells require only small amounts of viral protein to charge class I molecules, most likely via traditional class I processing pathways . These results reopen the potential use of inactivated virus preparations as immunogens for cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses .

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Mature human dendritic cells can be generated in substantial numbers from nonproliferating progenitors in human blood using a two-step protocol. T cell–depleted mononuclear cells are first cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-4 (IL-4) and then exposed to monocyte conditioned medium (MCM). The dendritic cells generated using this approach are rendered terminally mature and are the most potent antigen presenting cells identified to date in humans. We sought to characterize factors in MCM that induce the terminal differentiation of dendritic cells. MCM contained substantial, although varying, quantities of several factors including tumor necrosis factor-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and interferon-α. However, none of the four factors, individually or in various combinations, could fully substitute for the MCM to generate irreversibly differentiated dendritic cells. The yields, percentage of cells expressing the mature phase marker CD83, and mixed leukocyte reaction–stimulatory function were lower when defined cytokines were used in the place of MCM. Therefore, the full maturation of dendritic cells, because it entails changes in many known cell and molecular properties, requires a number of different cytokines that are released in tandem from appropriately stimulated monocytes. We propose that MCM-matured dendritic cells will be the most effective adjuvants for immunotherapy in vivo.

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