Establishment of Dendritic Cell Line from Caspase-1-Deficient Mice

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DC) are the most efficient antigen presenting cells and key players in the initiation and modulation of immune response. DC regulate the type of T cell response and play the crucial role in the induction of peripheral tolerance thus determining the balance between tolerance and immunity (Banchereau et al., 1998). DC maturation is initiated by innate immune signals: microbial components and inflammatory stimuli (Reis E Sousa et al., 2001). The precise mechanisms, by which innate immune signals control DC maturation to regulate immune response remain largely unknown. Caspase-1 (Interleukin-lbeta Converting Enzyme: ICE) processes precursor molecules to yield the biologically active form of interleukin-lbeta (IL-1β) (Kuida et al., 1995) and 1L-18 (Gu et al., 1997), both of which are considered to play significant roles in the inflammatory response. Thus we studied the differentiation course of bone marrow derived dendritic cells from WT and caspase-1-deficient mice to evaluate the role of this innate immune signal during the course of DC maturation. The number of DC in tissues is limited, they are functionally heterogeneous and hard to purify. Thus their biology and function could be studied in vitro by means of cell lines more easily and conveniently, and at the steady state of cell physiology.