Alternatively activated dendritic cells derived from systemic lupus erythematosus patients have tolerogenic phenotype and function

BACKGROUND: Tolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs) are potential cell-based therapy in autoimmune diseases. METHODS: In this study, we generated alternatively activated DCs (aaDCs) by treating monocyte-derived DCs from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and healthy subjects with combination of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D(3) (vitD3) and dexamethasone followed by lipopolysaccharide-induced maturation. RESULTS: Lupus aaDCs were found to acquire semi-mature phenotype that remained maturation-resistant to immunostimulants. They produced low level of interleukin-12 (IL-12) but high level of IL-10. They had …published_or_final_versio