Differential mechanisms of memory CD8 T cell maintenance by individual myeloid cell types

This study tested the hypothesis that individual myeloid subsets have a differential ability to maintain memory CD8 T cells via IL-15. Although DCs support IL-15-mediated homeostasis of memory CD8 T cells in vivo, whether various DC subsets and other myeloid cells similarly mediate homeostasis is unknown. Therefore, we studied the ability of different myeloid cells to maintain memory CD8 T cells in vitro. Using an in vitro cocoulture system that recapitulated known roles of DCs and IL-15 on memory CD8 T cells, all in vitro-derived or ex vivo-isolated DCs maintained CD8 T cells better than rIL-15 alone, and FLT3L-DCs are the most efficient compared with GM-DCs, BM-derived macrophages, or freshly isolated DCs. Although FLT-3L-DCs were the least effective at inducing CD8 T cell proliferation, FLT-3L-DCs promoted better CD8 T cell survival and increased Bcl-2 and MCL-2 expression in CD8 T cells. T cell maintenance correlated only partially with DC expression of IL-15R alpha and IL-15, suggesting that DCs provided additional support signals. Indeed, in the absence of IL-15 signals, CD70/CD27 further supported CD8 T cell maintenance. IFN-alpha enhanced CD70 expression by DCs, resulting in increased proliferation of CD8 T cells. Overall, this study supports our hypothesis by demonstrating that specific DC subtypes had a greater capacity to support memory CD8 T cell maintenance and did so through different mechanisms. Furthermore, this study shows that IL-15 trans-presentation can work in conjunction with other signals, such as CD70/CD27 interactions, to mediate CD8 T cell homeostasis efficiently. J. Leukoc. Biol. 88: 69-78; 2010.