Functional Langerinhigh-Expressing Langerhans-like Cells Can Arise from CD14highCD16− Human Blood Monocytes in Serum-Free Condition

Langerhans cells (LCs) are epithelial APCs that sense danger signals and in turn trigger specific immune responses. In steady-state, they participate in the maintenance of peripheral tolerance to self-antigens whereas under inflammation LCs efficiently trigger immune responses in secondary lymphoid organs. It has been demonstrated in mice that LC-deprived epithelia are rapidly replenished by short half-life langerin-expressing monocyte-derived LCs (MDLCs). These surrogate LCs are thought to be progressively replaced by langerin(high) LCs arising from self-renewing epithelial precursors of hematopoietic origin. How LCs arise from blood monocytes is not fully understood. Hence, we sought to characterize key factors that induce differentiation of langerin(high)-expressing monocyte-derived Langerhans-like cells. We identified GM-CSF and TGF-β1 as key cytokines to generate langerin(high)-expressing cells but only in serum-free conditions. These cells were shown to express the LC-specific TROP-2 and Axl surface markers and contained Birbeck granules. Surprisingly, E-cadherin was not spontaneously expressed by these cells but required a direct contact with keratinocytes to be stably induced. MDLCs induced stronger allogeneic T cell proliferations but released low amounts of inflammatory cytokines upon TLR stimulation compared with donor-paired monocyte-derived dendritic cells. Immature langerin(high) MDLCs were responsive to MIP-3β/CCL20 and CTAC/CCL27 chemokine stimulations. Finally, we demonstrated that those cells behaved as bona fide LCs when inserted in a three-dimensional rebuilt epithelium by becoming activated upon TLR or UV light stimulations. Collectively, these results prompt us to propose these langerin(high) MDLCs as a relevant model to address LC biology-related questions.