Abstract
Professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) such as conventional dendritic cells (DCs) process protein antigens to MHC-bound peptides and then present the peptide–MHC complexes to T cells. In addition to this canonical antigen presentation pathway, recent studies have revealed that DCs and non-APCs can acquire MHC class I (MHCI) and/or MHC class II (MHCII) from neighboring cells through a process of cell–cell contact-dependent membrane transfer called trogocytosis. These MHC-dressed cells subsequently activate or regulate T cells via the preformed antigen peptide–MHC complexes without requiring any further processing. In addition to trogocytosis, intercellular transfer of MHCI and MHCII can be mediated by secretion of membrane vesicles such as exosomes from APCs, generating MHC-dressed cells. This review focuses on the physiological role of antigen presentation by MHCI- or MHCII-dressed cells, and also discusses differences and similarities between trogocytosis and exosome-mediated transfer of MHC.
Highlights
Intercellular transfer of MHC was first observed by Cone et al over 40 years ago [1]
Numerous others have shown that the T cell receptor (TCR) rapidly acquires MHC molecules from antigen-presenting cells (APCs) via the immunological synapse formed at cell–cell contact area, and that this phenomenon impacts T cell activation [2,3,4,5,6,7,8], the physiological relevance of this is still not fully understood
Because recent findings on T cells dressed with MHC is well summarized by other review papers [11, 14], this review focuses on the dendritic cells (DCs) or non-professional APCs dressed with MHC class I (MHCI) or MHC class II (MHCII), which acquire APC-like function, and discusses the differences and similarities between trogocytosis and exosome-mediated transfer
Summary
Professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) such as conventional dendritic cells (DCs) process protein antigens to MHC-bound peptides and present the peptide–MHC complexes to T cells In addition to this canonical antigen presentation pathway, recent studies have revealed that DCs and non-APCs can acquire MHC class I (MHCI) and/or MHC class II (MHCII) from neighboring cells through a process of cell–cell contact-dependent membrane transfer called trogocytosis.These MHC-dressed cells subsequently activate or regulate T cells via the preformed antigen peptide–MHC complexes without requiring any further processing. Intercellular transfer of MHCI and MHCII can be mediated by secretion of membrane vesicles such as exosomes from APCs, generating MHC-dressed cells. This review focuses on the physiological role of antigen presentation by MHCI- or MHCII-dressed cells, and discusses differences and similarities between trogocytosis and exosome-mediated transfer of MHC
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