The Tumor Milieu Promotes Functional Human Tumor-Resident Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Humanized Mouse Models

Particular interest to harness the innate immune system for cancer immunotherapy is fueled by limitations of immune checkpoint blockade. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) are detected in a variety of solid tumors and correlate with poor clinical outcome. Release of type I interferons in response to toll-like-receptor (TLR)7 and TLR9 activation is the pDC hallmark. Mouse and human pDC differ substantially in their biology concerning surface marker expression and cytokine production. Here, we employed humanized mouse models (HIS) to study pDC function. We performed a comprehensive characterization of transgenic, myeloid-enhanced mouse strains (NOG-EXL and NSG-SGM3) expressing human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) using identical humanization protocols. Only in HIS-NOG-EXL mice sufficient pDC infiltration was detectable. Therefore, we selected this strain for subsequent tumor studies. We analyzed pDC frequency in peripheral blood and tumors by comparing HIS-NOG-EXL with HIS-NOG mice bearing three different ovarian and breast tumors. Despite the substantially increased pDC numbers in peripheral blood of HIS-NOG-EXL mice, we detected TLR7/8 agonist responsive and thus functional pDCs only in certain tumor models independent of the mouse strain employed. However, HIS-NOG-EXL mice showed in general a superior humanization phenotype characterized by reconstitution of different myeloid subsets, NK cells and B cells producing physiologic IgG levels. Hence, we provide first evidence that the tumor milieu but not genetically introduced cytokines defines intratumoral (i.t.) frequencies of the rare pDC subset. This study provides model systems to investigate in vivo pro- and anti-tumoral human pDC functions.