Analysis of dendritic cell function in immune responses

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590460
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Experimental pathology
• Research Institution: Wakayama Medical University (2014); Osaka University (2012-2013)
• Principal Investigator: HEMMI Hiroaki 和歌山県立医科大学, 先端医学研究所, 准教授 (20451924)
• Research Collaborator: FUKUDA Yuri ; TANAKA Yuriko
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 樹状細胞 / 免疫応答 / 免疫制御

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Dendritic cells are professional antigen presenting cells and consist of several subsets with specialized functions. A XC chemokine receptor 1 (XCR1) is selectively expressed on a dendritic cell subset showing a high ability to cross-present antigens to naive CD8 T cells. Conditional ablation of these XCR1+ dendritic cells in vivo are achieved by generation of gene modified mice in which the XCR1 gene was replaced with a gene coding for a fusion protein consisting of human diphtheria toxin receptor and fluorescent protein venus. In these mice, XCR1+ dendritic cells were transiently and conditionally ablated when diphtheria toxin was injected. Using this system, we found that cross-presentation as well as oral tolerance was impaired in the absence of XCR1+ dendritic cells in vivo. These results suggest that XCR1+ dendritic cells play important roles in induction of not only immune response but also immune tolerance.

Free Research Field

免疫学