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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, March 2005, p. 426-435, Vol. 12, No. 3
1071-412X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CDLI.12.3.426-435.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,1 Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey,2 Center for Comparative Medicine,3 California National Primate Research Center,4 Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine,5 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California at Davis, Davis, California6
Received 4 October 2004/ Returned for modification 23 November 2004/ Accepted 18 December 2004
Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) are potent producers of alpha interferon (IFN-
) in response to enveloped viruses and provide a critical link between the innate and adaptive immune responses. Although the loss of peripheral blood PDC function and numbers has been linked to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) progression in humans, a suitable animal model is needed to study the effects of immunodeficiency virus infection on PDC function. The rhesus macaque SIV model closely mimics human HIV infection, and recent studies have identified macaque PDC, potentially making the macaque a good model to study PDC regulation. In this study, we demonstrate that peripheral blood PDC from healthy macaques are both phenotypically and functionally similar to human PDC and that reagents used for human studies can be used to study macaque PDC. Both human and macaque PBMC expressed IFN-
in response to herpes simplex virus (HSV), the prototypical activator of PDC, as measured by using an IFN bioassay and IFN-
-specific enzyme-linked immunospot assays. Similar to human PDC, macaque PDC were identified by using flow cytometry as CD123+ HLA-DR+ lineage cells. In addition, like human PDC, macaque PDC expressed intracellular IFN-
, tumor necrosis factor alpha, macrophage inflammatory protein 1ß/CCL4, and IFN-inducible protein 10/CXCL10 upon stimulation with HSV, all as determined by intracellular flow cytometry. We found that IFN regulatory factor 7, which is required for the expression of IFN-
genes, was, similar to human PDC, expressed at high levels in macaque PDC compared to monocytes and CD8+ T cells. These findings establish the phenotypic and functional similarity of human and macaque PDC and confirm the utility of tools developed for studying human PDC in this animal model.
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