Markus G. Manz

Development of Monocytes, Macrophages, and Dendritic Cells

Development of Myeloid Immune Cells As leukocytes develop to maturity, they proceed through an array of phenotypically distinct intermediates. For T and B lymphocyte populations, the different developmental stages, anatomical locations, and cell signals required for progression are well established. However, until recently, much less has been known about how development proceeds in the myeloid lineage, which includes monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Geissmann et al. (p. 656) review our current understanding of myeloid lineage development and describe the developmental pathways and cues that drive differentiation. Monocytes and macrophages are critical effectors and regulators of inflammation and the innate immune response, the immediate arm of the immune system. Dendritic cells initiate and regulate the highly pathogen-specific adaptive immune responses and are central to the development of immunologic memory and tolerance. Recent in vivo experimental approaches in the mouse have unveiled new aspects of the developmental and lineage relationships among these cell populations. Despite this, the origin and differentiation cues for many tissue macrophages, monocytes, and dendritic cell subsets in mice, and the corresponding cell populations in humans, remain to be elucidated.

Langerhans cells renew in the skin throughout life under steady-state conditions

Langerhans cells (LCs) are bone marrow (BM)–derived epidermal dendritic cells (DCs) that represent a critical immunologic barrier to the external environment, but little is known about their life cycle. Here, we show that in lethally irradiated mice that had received BM transplants, LCs of host origin remained for at least 18 months, whereas DCs in other organs were almost completely replaced by donor cells within 2 months. In parabiotic mice with separate organs, but a shared blood circulation, there was no mixing of LCs. However, in skin exposed to ultraviolet light, LCs rapidly disappeared and were replaced by circulating LC precursors within 2 weeks. The recruitment of new LCs was dependent on their expression of the CCR2 chemokine receptor and on the secretion of CCR2-binding chemokines by inflamed skin. These data indicate that under steady-state conditions, LCs are maintained locally, but inflammatory changes in the skin result in their replacement by blood-borne LC progenitors.

Identification of clonogenic common Flt3+M-CSFR+ plasmacytoid and conventional dendritic cell progenitors in mouse bone marrow.

Lymphoid tissue plasmacytoid and conventional dendritic cells (DCs) are continuously regenerated from hematopoietic stem cells. The cytokine dependence and biology of plasmacytoid and conventional DCs suggest that regeneration might proceed through common DC-restricted developmental intermediates. By selecting for cytokine receptor expression relevant to DC development, we identify here highly cycling Lin−c-KitintFlt3+M-CSFR+ cells with a distinct gene-expression profile in mouse bone marrow that, on a clonal level in vitro and as a population both in vitro and in vivo, efficiently generated plasmacytoid and conventional DCs but no other lineages, which increased in number after in vivo injection of the cytokine Flt3 ligand. These clonogenic common DC progenitors thus define a cytokine-regulated DC developmental pathway that ensures the supply of various DC populations.

Flt3 Ligand Regulates Dendritic Cell Development from Flt3+ Lymphoid and Myeloid-committed Progenitors to Flt3+ Dendritic Cells In Vivo

Stimulation of Flt3 receptor tyrosine kinase through its cognate ligand expands early hematopoietic progenitor and dendritic cells (DCs) in humans and mice. The exact developmental stages at which hematopoietic progenitors express Flt3, are responsive to its ligand, and subsequently develop to DCs, are not known. Here we show that common lymphoid and common myeloid progenitors, as well as steady state DCs in thymus, spleen, and epidermis, express Flt3. The receptor is down-regulated once definitive B cell, T cell, and megakaryocyte/erythrocyte commitment occurs, and Flt3 is not detectable on other steady state hematopoietic cell populations. Upon in vivo Flt3 ligand (Flt3L) administration, Flt3+ progenitor cells and their progeny DCs are expanded, whereas Flt3− downstream progenitors are not, or are only slightly increased. Transplantation of common lymphoid and common myeloid progenitors and subsequent Flt3L injection increases progeny DCs of both precursor populations. These findings provide a definitive map of Flt3 expression in the hematopoietic hierarchy and directly demonstrate that Flt3L can drive DC development along both the lymphoid and myeloid developmental pathways from Flt3+ progenitors to Flt3+ DCs.

Prospective isolation of human clonogenic common myeloid progenitors

The hierarchical development from hematopoietic stem cells to mature cells of the hematolymphoid system involves progressive loss of self-renewal capacity, proliferation ability, and lineage potentials. Here we show the prospective isolation of early developmental intermediates, the human clonogenic common myeloid progenitors and their downstream progeny, the granulocyte/macrophage and megakaryocyte/erythrocyte progenitors. All three populations reside in the lineage-negative (lin−) CD34+CD38+ fraction of adult bone marrow as well as in cord blood. They are distinguishable by the expression of the IL-3Rα chain, the receptor of an early-acting hematopoietic cytokine, and CD45RA, an isoform of a phosphotyrosine phosphatase involved in negative regulation of cytokine signaling. Multipotent progenitors, early lymphoid progenitors, and the here-defined myeloid progenitors express distinct profiles of hematopoiesis-affiliated genes. The isolation of highly purified hematopoietic intermediates provides tools to better understand developmental programs underlying normal and leukemic hematopoiesis.

Dendritic cell homeostasis

Dendritic cells (DCs) are a heterogeneous fraction of rare hematopoietic cells that coevolved with the formation of the adaptive immune system. DCs efficiently process and present antigen, move from sites of antigen uptake to sites of cellular interactions, and are critical in the initiation of immune responses as well as in the maintenance of self-tolerance. DCs are distributed throughout the body and are enriched in lymphoid organs and environmental contact sites. Steady-state DC half-lives account for days to up to a few weeks, and they need to be replaced via proliferating hematopoietic progenitors, monocytes, or tissue resident cells. In this review, we integrate recent knowledge on DC progenitors, cytokines, and transcription factor usage to an emerging concept of in vivo DC homeostasis in steady-state and inflammatory conditions. We furthermore highlight how knowledge of these maintenance mechanisms might impact on understanding of DC malignancies as well as posttransplant immune reactions and their respective therapies.

Depletion of host Langerhans cells before transplantation of donor alloreactive T cells prevents skin graft-versus-host disease

Skin is the most commonly affected organ in graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). To explore the role of Langerhans cells in GVHD, the principal dendritic cells of the skin, we studied the fate of these cells in mice transplanted with allogeneic bone marrow. In contrast to other dendritic cells, host Langerhans cells were replaced by donor Langerhans cells only when donor T cells were administered along with bone marrow, and the extent of Langerhans cell chimerism correlated with the dose of donor T cells injected. Donor T cells depleted host Langerhans cells through a Fas-dependent pathway and induced the production in skin of CCL20, which was required for the recruitment of donor Langerhans cells. Administration of donor T cells to bone marrow–chimeric mice with persistent host Langerhans cells, but not to mice whose Langerhans cells had been replaced, resulted in marked skin GVHD. These findings indicate a crucial role for donor T cells in host Langerhans cell replacement, and show that host dendritic cells can persist in nonlymphoid tissue for the duration of an animals life and can trigger GVHD despite complete blood chimerism.

Disseminated and sustained HIV infection in CD34+ cord blood cell-transplanted Rag2-/-gamma c-/- mice.

Because of species selectivity, HIV research is largely restricted to in vitro or clinical studies, both limited in their ability to rapidly assess new strategies to fight the virus. To prospectively study some aspects of HIV in vivo, immunodeficient mice, transplanted with either human peripheral blood leukocytes or human fetal tissues, have been developed. Although these are susceptible to HIV infection, xenoreactivity, and short infection spans, resource and ethical constraints, as well as biased HIV coreceptor tropic strain infection, pose substantial problems in their use. Rag2−/−γc−/− mice, transplanted as newborns with human CD34+ cells, were recently shown to develop human B, T, and dendritic cells, constituting lymphoid organs in situ. Here we tested these mice as a model system for HIV-1 infection. HIV RNA levels peaked to up to 2 × 106 copies per milliliter of plasma early after infection, and viremia was observed for up to 190 days, the longest time followed. A marked relative CD4+ T cell depletion in peripheral blood occurred in CXCR4-tropic strain-infected mice, whereas this was less pronounced in CCR5-tropic strain-infected animals. Thymus infection was almost exclusively observed in CXCR4-tropic strain-infected mice, whereas spleen and lymph node HIV infection occurred irrespective of coreceptor selectivity, consistent with respective coreceptor expression on human CD4+ T cells. Thus, this straightforward to generate and cost-effective in vivo model closely resembles HIV infection in man and therefore should be valuable to study virus-induced pathology and to rapidly evaluate new approaches aiming to prevent or treat HIV infection.

Development and function of human innate immune cells in a humanized mouse model

Mice repopulated with human hematopoietic cells are a powerful tool for the study of human hematopoiesis and immune function in vivo. However, existing humanized mouse models cannot support development of human innate immune cells, including myeloid cells and natural killer (NK) cells. Here we describe two mouse strains called MITRG and MISTRG, in which human versions of four genes encoding cytokines important for innate immune cell development are knocked into their respective mouse loci. The human cytokines support the development and function of monocytes, macrophages and NK cells derived from human fetal liver or adult CD34+ progenitor cells injected into the mice. Human macrophages infiltrated a human tumor xenograft in MITRG and MISTRG mice in a manner resembling that observed in tumors obtained from human patients. This humanized mouse model may be used to model the human immune system in scenarios of health and pathology, and may enable evaluation of therapeutic candidates in an in vivo setting relevant to human physiology.

Demand-adapted regulation of early hematopoiesis in infection and inflammation.

During systemic infection and inflammation, immune effector cells are in high demand and are rapidly consumed at sites of need. Although adaptive immune cells have high proliferative potential, innate immune cells are mostly postmitotic and need to be replenished from bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. We here review how early hematopoiesis has been shaped to deliver efficient responses to increased need. On the basis of most recent findings, we develop an integrated view of how cytokines, chemokines, as well as conserved pathogen structures, are sensed, leading to divisional activation, proliferation, differentiation, and migration of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, all aimed at efficient contribution to immune responses and rapid reestablishment of hematopoietic homeostasis. We also outline how chronic inflammatory processes might impinge on hematopoiesis, potentially fostering hematopoietic stem cell diseases, and, how clinical benefit is and could be achieved by learning from nature.