The extracellular domain of CD83 inhibits dendritic cell-mediated T cell stimulation and binds to a ligand on dendritic cells
- J Exp Med. 2001 Dec 17;194(12):1813-21. doi: 10.1084/jem.194.12.1813.
- 1. Department of Dermatology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, D-91052 Erlangen, Germany.
CD83 is an immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily member that is upregulated during the maturation of dendritic cells (DCs). It has been widely used as a marker for mature DCs, but its function is still unknown. To approach its potential functional role, we have expressed the extracellular Ig domain of human CD83 (hCD83ext) as a soluble protein. Using this tool we could show that immature as well as mature DCs bind to CD83. Since CD83 binds a ligand also expressed on immature DCs, which do not express CD83, indicates that binding is not a homophilic interaction. In addition we demonstrate that hCD83ext interferes with DC maturation downmodulating the expression of CD80 and CD83, while no phenotypical effects were observed on T cells. Finally, we show that hCD83ext inhibits DC-dependent allogeneic and peptide-specific T cell proliferation in a concentration dependent manner in vitro. This is the first report regarding functional aspects of CD83 and the binding of CD83 to DCs.