BioProject

Dendritic cells (DC) play critical roles in central and peripheral T cell tolerance. More...

Dendritic cells (DC) play critical roles in central and peripheral T cell tolerance. DC found in the steady-state periphery undergo an homeostatic, tolerogenic, maturation that promotes interaction with naive T cells and induction of abortive responses. In contrast, thymic DC are thought to exist solely in an immature state. In this study, we show that XCR1+ thymic DC constitutively mature into a stage characterized by high levels of molecules involved in T cell activation. This unanticipated mature stage corresponded to a third of the XCR1+ thymic DC and fully accounted for their ability to cross-present self-antigens to developing T cells. Transcriptomic analysis of the XCR1+ DC found in thymus and steady-state periphery revealed that their maturation involves profound and convergent changes. Unexpectedly, maturation resulted in down-regulation of genes conferring their specific function on XCR1+ DC. Paradoxically, upon maturation, central and peripheral tolerogenic XCR1+ DC up-regulated many genes thought to drive pro-inflammatory T-cell responses. Thus, our results reveal that thymic XCR1+ DC undergo constitutive maturation and emphasize the common mechanisms operating for both central and peripheral tolerance induction by XCR1+ DC. Overall design: DC were isolated from lymphoid organs as previously described (Vremec et al., 2000). DC subsets were sorted by flow cytometry according to the marker combinations described in the “characteristics: phenotype” field for each sample. Less...