Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Infection and Immunity, April 1999, p. 1763-1769, Vol. 67, No. 4
Molecular Immunology Section, Department of
Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3E 0W3, Canada
Received 22 October 1998/Returned for modification 18 December
1998/Accepted 20 January 1999
Immunization with dendritic cells pulsed ex vivo with antigens has
been successfully used to elicit primary antigen-specific immune
responses. We report that mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells
pulsed with inactivated chlamydial organisms induced strong protection
against live chlamydial infection in a mouse lung infection model.
Either the dendritic cells or chlamydial organisms alone or macrophages
similarly pulsed with chlamydial organisms failed to induce any
significant protection. These observations suggest that dendritic cells
can efficiently process and present chlamydial antigens to naive T
cells in vivo. Mice immunized with the chlamydia-pulsed dendritic cells
preferentially developed a Th1 cell-dominant response while mice
immunized with the other immunogens did not, suggesting a correlation
between a Th1 cell-dominant response and protection against chlamydial
infection. We further found that dendritic cells produced a large
amount of interleukin 12 (IL-12) upon ex vivo pulsing with inactivated
chlamydial organisms, which may allow the dendritic cells to direct a
Th1 cell-dominant response. Dendritic cells from mice deficient in the
IL-12 p40 gene failed to produce IL-12 after a similar ex vivo pulse
with chlamydial organisms, and more importantly, immunization with
these dendritic cells failed to induce a Th1 cell-dominant response and
did not induce strong protection against chlamydial infection. Thus,
the ability of dendritic cells to efficiently process and present chlamydial antigens and to produce IL-12 upon chlamydial-organism stimulation are both required for the induction of protection against
chlamydial infection. This information may be useful for the further
design of effective chlamydial vaccines.
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Interleukin-12 Production Is Required for
Chlamydial Antigen-Pulsed Dendritic Cells To Induce Protection
against Live Chlamydia trachomatis Infection
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, 508-730 William Ave.,
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3E 0W3. Phone: (204) 789-3835. Fax: (204)
789-3926. E-mail: gmzhong{at}cc.umanitoba.ca.
This article has been cited by other articles:
| J. Bacteriol. | J. Virol. | Eukaryot. Cell |
|---|
| Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. | Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | All ASM Journals |
|---|