Regulation of T cell cytokine production by dendritic cells

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Abstract
Previous work has established that the dendritic cells (DC) of mouse spleen regulate the IL‐2 production, and hence the extent of proliferation, of the CD8 T cells they activate. It is now reported here that interaction of primary CD8 T cells with splenic CD8α DC induced much higher production of IL‐3, IFN‐γ and granulocyte‐macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF), as well as IL‐2, than did interaction with CD8α+ splenic DC. Furthermore, the CD8α DC also induced higher levels of IL‐2, IL‐3 and IL‐10 production in primary CD4 T cells, compared with that induced by CD8α+ DC. These quantitative differences did not involve qualitative shifts in the type of cytokine produced. Interleukin‐4 production remained low in all the primary T cell cultures and restimulation experiments in secondary cultures did not reveal any bias in the cytokine production profile. When exogenous IL‐2 was added to the primary cultures to ensure equal proliferation in response to CD8α or CD8α+ DC, the higher level of production of IL‐3, IFN‐γ and GM‐CSF induced by CD8α DC was maintained. Thus, this general control of T cell cytokine production by splenic DC involves factors additional to those that govern activation of T cells into cell cycle.
Funding Information
  • Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology
  • Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  • National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia