Airway dendritic cell phenotypes in inflammatory diseases of the human lung

¹ Dept of Pneumology, University of Rostock, Germany

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: marek.lommatzsch{at}med.uni-rostock.de.

	Abstract

Airway dendritic cells (DCs) are key regulators of pulmonary immune responses. However, there is limited information on the characteristics of airway DCs in human lung diseases.

Plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and myeloid DCs (mDCs) were analysed using four-color flow cytometry in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of non-smoking controls, and of patients with sarcoidosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and pneumonia (in the presence or abscence of immunosuppression).

Compared to controls, immunocompetent patients with pneumonia displayed strongly enhanced pDC counts in BALF. In contrast, pDC counts in BALF of immunocompromised patients with pneumonia were even lower than in controls. This discrepancy was not explained by a different chemotactic milieu in the airways: all patients with pneumonia were characterised by strongly increased concentrations of the pDC attracting chemokine CXCL10 in BALF. Patients with IPF were characterised by normal percentages of DC subtypes, but less mature (CD83-positive) mDCs. Patients with sarcoidosis displayed a unique increase in CD1a-negative mDCs in the airways. In addition, there was an altered expression of co-stimulatory molecules (increased CD80 and decreased CD86 expression) on mDCs in patients with sarcoidosis.

Our data suggest that inflammatory diseases of the human lung are associated with a differential phenotype and recruitment of airway DCs.

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