Suppression of Human Dendritic Cells by Regulatory T Cells
Qing Huang,
Avery Lam,
Dominic Boardman,
Nicholas Dawson,
Megan Levings
Affiliations
Qing Huang
Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaBC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada
Avery Lam
Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaBC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, ancouver, Canada
Dominic Boardman
Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaBC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada
Nicholas Dawson
Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaBC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada
Megan Levings
Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaBC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada, School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) suppress immune responses via a variety of mechanisms and can be used as a cellular therapy to induce tolerance. The function of Tregs is commonly assessed in vitro using assays that measure suppression of effector T cell proliferation and/or cytokine production. However, Tregs can also suppress the function of antigen presenting cells, creating a need for methodology to routinely measure this aspect of their function. This protocol describes a method to measure human Treg-mediated suppression of CD80 and CD86 expression on mature, monocyte-derived dendritic cells. Representative data show suppression mediated by polyclonal Tregs as well as antigen-specific Tregs generated using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. This method can be used in parallel to T cell suppression assays to measure the functional activity of human Tregs.
