Allostimulatory cells in fresh human blood: heterogeneity in antigen-presenting cell populations

The relative ability of unmanipulated monocytes, B cells, and dendritic cells (DC) from peripheral blood to stimulate an allogeneic MLR has not been clearly established. We studied the allostimulatory ability of these cell types from minimally manipulated PBMC populations to exclude the induction of stimulatory properties by the complex isolation procedures commonly used to isolate blood DC. Highly purified cell populations were obtained from volunteer donors by immunolabeling PBMC with mAb directed against known lineage-associated markers and separating the positive and negative population on a FACS. These cells were used as stimulators in an allogeneic MLR. The major allostimulatory activity resides in the CD14, CD11b, and CD19 negative fractions. A mixture of antibodies to T, B, NK, monocyte, and FcRIII positive cells was then used to isolate a minor cell population that contained a markedly superstimulatory population of (CD3, CD14, CD16, CD19, and CD57) negative cells. We demonstrate that this activity is constitutive, and is not an artifact of the adherence and in vitro culture steps used in conventional DC purification procedures. We also show by rigorous depletion of the T cell responders that endogenous HLA class II positive cells in the responder population have little role in presenting processed allogeneic antigens during the primary MLR. Monocytes and B cells are stimulators of the allogeneic MLR, but are considerably less potent on a cell for cell basis than the putative DC population. Finally, because human blood and tonsil DC lack detectable CD43 by immunoperoxidase staining, in contrast to monocytes and activated B cells, we examined the ability of CD43 negative and positive cells to stimulate an allogeneic MLR. Similar allostimulatory activity for the human MLR was shown to reside in both the CD43 positive and negative fractions, suggesting that there may be some heterogeneity in the APC population.