CD1a molecules traffic through the early recycling endosomal pathway in human Langerhans cells

In this work, we studied the localization and traffic of CD1a molecules in human epidermal Langerhans cells and the ability of these cells to stimulate CD1a-restricted T cell clones. We found that CD1a was spontaneously internalized into freshly isolated Langerhans cells, where it was rapidly distributed to the early/sorting endosomes and then to the early/recycling endosomes. In the latter compartments, CD1a colocalized with Rab11, a small GTPase known to be involved in the recycling of transmembrane proteins from early endosomes to the cell surface. In the steady state, intracellular CD1a was mainly located in Rab11+ recycling endosomal compartments. When endocytosis was blocked, intracellular CD1a moved rapidly from the early/recycling endosomes to the cell surface where it accumulated. The resultant increase in the cell surface expression of CD1a enhanced the capacity of Langerhans cells to stimulate a CD1a-restricted T cell clone. These findings are consistent with a dynamic exchange of CD1a between recycling compartments and the plasma membrane and suggest that the antigen-presenting function of CD1a depends on its traffic through the early/recycling endosomal pathway.