Anergic T cells inhibit the antigen-presenting function of dendritic cells

The phenomena of infectious tolerance and linked-suppression are well established, but the mechanisms involved are incompletely defined. Anergic T cells can inhibit responsive T cells in vitro and prolong skin allograft survival in vivo. In this study the mechanisms underlying these events were explored. Allospecific mouse T cell clones rendered unresponsive in vitro inhibited proliferation by responsive T cells specific for the same alloantigens. The inhibition required the presence of APC, in that the response to coimmobilized anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 Abs was not inhibited. Coculture of anergic T cells with bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DC) led to profound inhibition of the ability of the DC to stimulate T cells with the same or a different specificity. After coculture with anergic T cells expression of MHC class II, CD80 and CD86 by DC were down-regulated. These effects did not appear to be due to a soluble factor in that inhibition was not seen in Transwell experiments, and was not reversed by addition of neutralizing anti-IL-4, anti-IL-10, and anti-TGF-beta Abs. Taken together, these data suggest that anergic T cells function as suppressor cells by inhibiting Ag presentation by DC via a cell contact-dependent mechanism.