Comparable functions of plasmacytoid and monocyte-derived dendritic cells in chronic hepatitis C patients and healthy donors

Chronic HCV patient and healthy donor Mo-DCs respond similarly to LPS by up-regulation of maturation markers. A, average of MFI±SD of B7.2 (CD86), CD83, HLA-DR maturation markers with (white bar) or without (black bar) LPS stimulation in HCV patient and healthy donor Mo-DCs. B, comparison, as representative example, of B7.2 (CD86), CD83, HLA-DR fluorescence histograms before (thin line) and after (bold line) LPS stimulation, between a healthy donor and a HCV patient Mo-DCs. Cells from 10 different healthy donors and 10 HCV patients were assessed. LPS was used at 100ng/ml.

Chronic HCV patient and healthy donor Mo-DCs have comparable allostimulatory capacity. (A) Average of stimulation indices (SIs)±SD in MLR at the Stimulator/Responder ratio of 1/20, using as stimulator cells immature Mo-DCs from healthy donors (white bar) or from HCV chronic patients (black bar). Allogeneic PBMCs are used as responder cells. 10 different healthy donors and HCV patients were analyzed. (B) Representative example of SIs at different Stimulator/Responder ratios, in two MLRs performed using healthy donor (white circle) or HCV patient (black circle) Mo-DCs as stimulator cells. (C) Thymidine incorporation in two MLRs with donor (white square) and HCV patient (black square) Mo-DCs as stimulator cells. SI is the ratio of cpm between samples with stimulator plus responder cells and samples with responder cells alone.

Chronic HCV patient and healthy donor Mo-DCs produce TNF-α with similar efficiency. TNF-α quantified by sandwich ELISA in culture supernatant of healthy donor and chronic HCV patient Mo-DCs stimulated with LPS at 100ng/ml. We used 10 different healthy donors and HCV patients. P>0.3 (Student's t-test).

pDCs from chronic HCV patients and healthy donors show comparable TNF-α and IFN-α production. (A) Average±SD of percentage of TNF-α and IFN-α positive pDCs, as revealed by intracellular staining, in 24 healthy donors (white bar) and 10 HCV chronic patients (black bar). (B) and (C) Dot plots of BDCA-2+ gated pDCs stained for TNF-α and IFN-α from a healthy donor (B) or a chronic HCV patient (C). PBMCs were incubated overnight with CpG 2216 at 10μg/ml. Brefeldin was added after 4–6h of stimulation at final concentration of 2μg/ml.