Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Transplants tolerated through a process known as infectious tolerance evoke continuous recruitment of regulatory T (Treg) cells that are necessary to maintain the unresponsive state. This state is maintained long-term and requires continuous Ag exposure. It is not known, however, whether infectious tolerance operates through sustained recruitment of pre-existing regulatory cells, induction of regulatory cells, or both. Using mice deficient in natural Treg cells, we show here that quiescent donor dendritic cells (DC) laden with histocompatibility Ag can induce Treg cells de novo that mediate transplantation tolerance. In contrast, fully activated DC fail to do so. These findings suggest that DC incapable of delivering full activation signals to naive T cells may favor their polarization toward a regulatory phenotype. Furthermore, they suggest a role for quiescent endogenous DC in the maintenance of the tolerant state.

Type

Journal article

Journal

J Immunol

Publication Date

15/07/2007

Volume

179

Pages

967 - 976

Keywords

Animals, Dendritic Cells, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Flow Cytometry, Gene Expression, Gene Expression Regulation, Lymphocyte Activation, Mice, Mice, Transgenic, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Skin Transplantation, T-Lymphocyte Subsets, T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory, Transplantation Tolerance