Systemic IL-12 administration alters hepatic dendritic cell stimulation capabilities.

ABSTRACT: The liver is an immunologically unique organ containing tolerogenic dendritic cells (DC) that maintain an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Although systemic IL-12 administration can improve responses to tumors, the effects of IL-12-based treatments on DC, in particular hepatic DC, remain incompletely understood. In this study, we demonstrate systemic IL-12 administration induces a 2-3 fold increase in conventional, but not plasmacytoid, DC subsets in the liver. Following IL-12 administration, hepatic DC became more phenotypically and functionally mature, resembling the function of splenic DC, but differed as compared to their splenic counterparts in the production of IL-12 following co-stimulation with toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists. Hepatic DCs from IL-12 treated mice acquired enhan

SUBMITTER: Chan T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3302816 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature