Showing papers by "Elodie Segura published in 2005"

Mature dendritic cells secrete exosomes with strong ability to induce antigen-specific effector immune responses.

Abstract: Exosomes are secreted vesicles formed in late endocytic compartments. Immature dendritic cells (DCs) secrete exosomes which transfer functional MHC-peptide complexes to other DCs. Since immature and mature DCs induce different functional T cell responses (i.e., tolerance versus priming), we asked whether DC maturation also influenced the priming abilities of their exosomes. We show that immature and mature murine DCs secrete morphologically similar exosomes. Extensive proteomic analysis of the two exosome populations showed identical overall protein composition, and provided an exhaustive image of the protein composition of DC-derived exosomes. By quantitative analysis, however, exosomes from mature DCs proved enriched in MHC class II, B7.2, ICAM-1, and depleted in MFG-E8, as compared to immature exosomes. In functional T cell stimulation assays, exosomes secreted by mature DCs were 50- to 100-fold more potent than exosomes from immature DCs, both in vitro and in vivo. MHC class II and ICAM-1 were necessary for the increased immune activity of exosomes secreted by mature DCs. Therefore, changes in protein composition and priming abilities of exosomes reflect the maturation signals received by DCs.

Accumulation of MFG-E8/lactadherin on exosomes from immature dendritic cells.

Abstract: Exosomes are vesicles of endocytic origin secreted spontaneously by dendritic cells (DCs). We have shown previously that exosomes can transfer antigen or MHC–peptide complexes between DCs, thus potentially amplifying the immune response. We had also identified milk fat globule EGF/factor VIII (MFG-E8), also called lactadherin, as one of the major exosomal proteins. MFG-E8 has two domains: an Arg–Gly–Asp sequence that binds integrins αvβ3 and αvβ5 (expressed by human DCs and macrophages) and a phosphatidyl–serine (PS) binding sequence through which it associates to PS-containing membranes (among which exosomes). MFG-E8 is thus a good candidate molecule to address exosomes to DCs. Here, we show that MFG-E8 is expressed by immature bone-marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) and secreted in association with exosomes in vitro. We have generated mice expressing an inactive form of MFG-E8, fused to β-galactosidase. Analyzing these mice, we demonstrate that MFG-E8 is expressed in vivo in splenic DCs. In a mouse DC-dependent, antigen-specific, CD4 T cell-stimulation assay, exosomes produced by MFG-E8-deficient BMDCs were barely less efficient than exosomes bearing MFG-E8. We conclude that MFG-E8 is efficiently targeted to exosomes but is not essential to address exosomes to mouse BMDCs. Involvement of MFG-E8/lactadherin in exosome targeting to other DC subpopulations, or to human DCs, is still possible.