Th2-type inflammation instructs inflammatory dendritic cells to induce airway hyperreactivity

Dendritic cells (DCs) play critical roles in determining the fate of CD4⁺ T cells. Among DC sub-populations, monocyte-derived inflammatory DCs (iDCs) have been shown to play an important role in the induction of adaptive immune responses under inflammatory conditions. Although previous studies have shown that DCs have an indispensable role in the induction of allergic airway inflammation and airway hyperreactivity (AHR) in murine asthma models, the precise roles of iDCs in the asthmatic responses remain largely unknown. We show here that T(h)2 cell-mediated inflammation in murine asthma models induces the expression of some markers of alternatively activated macrophage such as arginase 1 and resistin-like molecule-α in iDCs by a mechanism depending on the intrinsic expression of STAT6. In contrast, T(h)1 cell-mediated inflammation induces iDCs to express TNF-α and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), markers of TNF-α- and iNOS-producing DCs. Moreover, we show that iDCs under a T(h)2 environment play an important role in the induction of AHR, independently of allergic airway inflammation. Our results thus indicate the importance of iDCs in the induction of AHR as downstream effector cells in T(h)2 cell-mediated asthmatic responses.