Stimulation of Anti-HIV-1 Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes by Dendritic Cells

Dendritic cells (DC) are highly specialized antigen-presenting cells (APC) in both primary and secondary T-cell responses. This may be related to their expression of high levels of MHC class I and II antigens (1 -4 ), costimulatory molecules CD40, CD80, and CD86 (5 ,6 ), and production of cytokines such as interleukin-12 (IL-12) (7 -9 ), IL-6 (10 ), and interferon α (IFN-α) (10 ,11 ). Moreover, DC can process antigens in various forms by different pathways and induce high levels of both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cell reactivity (12 ).