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Blood, 1 May 2008, Vol. 111, No. 9, pp. 4588-4595. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on January 14, 2008; DOI 10.1182/blood-2007-09-114769. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Figures All Versions of this Article: blood-2007-09-114769v1 111/9/4588    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by Bolinger, B. Articles by Ludewig, B. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bolinger, B. Articles by Ludewig, B. Related Collections Hemostasis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Related Article in Blood Online Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  HEMOSTASIS, THROMBOSIS, AND VASCULAR BIOLOGY Immunologic ignorance of vascular endothelial cells expressing minor histocompatibility antigen Beatrice Bolinger1,*, Philippe Krebs1,*, Yinghua Tian2, Daniel Engeler1, Elke Scandella1, Simone Miller1, Douglas C. Palmer3, Nicholas P. Restifo3, Pierre-Alain Clavien2, and Burkhard Ludewig1 1 Research Department, Kantonal Hospital, St Gallen, Switzerland; 2 Departement of Visceral Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; and 3 National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD Endothelial cells (ECs) presenting minor histocompatibility antigen (mhAg) are major target cells for alloreactive effector CD8+ T cells during chronic transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The contribution of ECs to T-cell activation, however, is still a controversial issue. In this study, we have assessed the antigen-presenting capacity of ECs in vivo using a transgenic mouse model with beta-galactosidase (β-gal) expression confined to the vascular endothelium (Tie2-LacZ mice). In a GVHD-like setting with adoptive transfer of β-gal–specific T-cell receptor–transgenic T cells, β-gal expression by ECs was not sufficient to either activate or tolerize CD8+ T cells. Likewise, transplantation of fully vascularized heart or liver grafts from Tie2-LacZ mice into nontransgenic recipients did not suffice to activate β-gal–specific CD8+ T cells, indicating that CD8+ T-cell responses against mhAg cannot be initiated by ECs. Moreover, we could show that spontaneous activation of β-gal–specific CD8+ T cells in Tie2-LacZ mice was exclusively dependent on CD11c+ dendritic cells (DCs), demonstrating that mhAgs presented by ECs remain immunologically ignored unless presentation by DCs is granted. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? Related Article in Blood Online: Ignorance is bliss Daniel Zecher and Fadi G. Lakkis Blood 2008 111: 4426-4427. [Full Text] [PDF]

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