Regulatory dendritic cells protect mice from murine acute graft-versus-host disease and leukemia relapse.

We have established a novel immunotherapeutic approach involving dendritic cells (DCs) with potent immunoregulatory property (designated as regulatory DCs [rDCs]) for acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and leukemia relapse in allogeneic bone marrow (BM) transplantation (BMT) in mice bearing leukemia. rDCs displayed high levels of MHC molecules and extremely low levels of costimulatory molecules. A single injection of rDCs following allogeneic BMT controlled the ability of the transplanted T cells to induce acute GVHD and graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect in the recipients bearing leukemia, and that resulted in protection from the lethality caused by acute GVHD and tumor burden. Thus, the use of rDCs may be therapeutically useful for the treatment of acute GVHD and leukemia relapse in allogeneic BMT.