Résumé
In the present study we evaluated the role of IFN- alpha in the generation of dendritic cells (IFN-DCs) with priming activity on CD8 super(+) T lymphocytes directed against human tumor Ags. A 3-day treatment of monocytes, obtained as adherent PBMCs from HLA-A*0201 super(+) healthy donors, with IFN- alpha and GM-CSF led to the differentiation of DCs displaying a semimature phenotype, but promptly inducing CD8 super(+) T cell responses after one in vitro sensitization with peptides derived from melanoma (gp100 sub(209-217) and MART-1/Melan-A sub(27- 35)) and adenocarcinoma (CEA sub(605-613)) Ags. However, these features were lost when IFN-DCs were generated from immunosorted CD14 super(+) monocytes. The ability of adherent PBMCs to differentiate into IFN-DCs expressing higher levels of costimulatory molecules and exerting efficient T cell priming capacity was associated with the presence of contaminating NK cells, which underwent phenotypic and functional activation upon IFN- alpha treatment. NK cell boost appeared to be mediated by both direct and indirect (i.e. mediated by IFN-DCs) mechanisms. Experiments performed to prove the role of contaminating NK cells in DC differentiation showed that IFN-DCs generated in the absence of NK were phenotypically less mature and could not efficiently prime antitumor CD8 super(+) lymphocytes. Reciprocally, IFN-DCs raised from immunosorted CD14 super(+) monocytes regained their T cell priming activity when NK cells were added to the culture before IFN- alpha and GM-CSF treatment. Together, our data suggest that the ability of IFN-DCs to efficiently prime anti-tumor CD8 super(+) T lymphocytes relied mostly on the positive cross-talk occurring between DCs and NK cells upon stimulation with IFN- alpha .