Similar antigen cross-presentation capacity and phagocytic functions in all freshly isolated human lymphoid organ–resident dendritic cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) represent a heterogeneous population of antigen-presenting cells that initiate and orient immune responses in secondary lymphoid organs. In mice, lymphoid organ–resident CD8(+) DCs are specialized at cross-presentation and have developed specific adaptations of their endocytic pathway (high pH, low degradation, and high export to the cytosol). In humans, blood BDCA3(+) DCs were recently shown to be the homologues of mouse CD8(+) DCs. They were also proposed to cross-present antigens more efficiently than other blood DC subsets after in vitro activation, suggesting that in humans cross-presentation is restricted to certain DC subsets. The DCs that cross-present antigen physiologically, however, are the ones present in lymphoid organs. Here, we show that freshly isolated tonsil-resident BDCA1(+) DCs, BDCA3(+) DCs, and pDCs all cross-present soluble antigen efficiently, as compared to macrophages, in the absence of activation. In addition, BDCA1(+) and BDCA3(+) DCs display similar phagosomal pH and similar production of reactive oxygen species in their phagosomes. All three DC subsets, in contrast to macrophages, also efficiently export internalized proteins to the cytosol. We conclude that all freshly isolated lymphoid organ–resident human DCs, but not macrophages, display high intrinsic cross-presentation capacity.