Dendritic Cell Mystery Solved with Gene Gun Technology

How such small numbers of short-lived dendritic cells could activate rare antigen-specific T-cells was unclear. To unravel this mystery, investigators at Emory University (Atlanta, GA, USA; www.emory.edu) used a gene gun to fire one-micrometer sized DNA-coated gold particles into the skin cells of transgenic mice engineered with a marker gene that could be easily detected by staining.

They reported in the August 10, 2003, online edition of Nature Immunology that the number of antigen-bearing dendritic cells that migrated to draining lymph nodes was 100-fold higher than previously estimated and that they persisted for approximately two weeks. This number of cells and their two-week life span ensured ample antigen presentation and stimulation for the rare antigen-specific T-cells in draining lymph nodes.

"This research resolves a long-standing puzzle,” explained senior author Dr. Joshy Jacob, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory University School of Medicine. "T-cells that will recognize a given foreign protein are quite rare, so it was hard to imagine how the T-cells and dendritic cells would ever meet. It is still remarkable that they do.”



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