CD40-ligated dendritic cells effectively expand melanoma-specific CD8⁺ CTLs and CD4⁺ IFN-γ-producing T cells from tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes

Professional APC, notably dendritic cells (DC), are necessary for stimulation and expansion of naive T cells. By means of murine models, the interaction between CD40 on DC and its ligand CD154 has been recognized as an important element for conditioning of DC to prime and expand CTL. We translated these findings into the human system, scrutinizing the ability of DC to initiate clonal expansion of single T cells. DC generated under completely autologous conditions from peripheral blood monocytes were cocultured at a rate of 0.3 cell/well with melanoma-infiltrating T cells; this procedure guaranteed that either a CD4⁺ or a CD8⁺ cell interacted with the DC, thus avoiding the contact of more than one T cell to the DC. In the absence of further stimulation, this cloning protocol yielded almost exclusively CD4⁺ T cell clones that predominantly exhibited a Th2 phenotype. However, cross-linking of CD40 on DC resulted in the induction of IFN-γ- producing Th1 CD4⁺ T cell clones. In addition, CD40-activated DC were capable of expanding CD8⁺ CTL clones. The ratio of CD4 to CD8 T cell clones corresponded to the ratio present in the initial tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte preparation. The CTL clones efficiently lysed autologous tumor cells whereas autologous fibroblasts or MHC-mismatched melanoma cells were not killed. Our findings support the critical role of CD40/CD154 interactions for the induction of cellular immune responses.