Activation of Dendritic Cells Alters the Mechanism of MHC Class II Antigen Presentation to CD4 T Cells

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Both immature and mature dendritic cells (DCs) can process and present foreign Ags to CD4 T cells; however, the mechanism by which MHC class II (MHC-II) in mature DCs acquires antigenic peptides remains unknown. To address this, we have studied Ag processing and presentation of two distinct CD4 T cell epitopes of the influenza virus hemagglutinin coat protein by both immature and mature mouse DCs. We find that immature DCs almost exclusively use newly synthesized MHC-II targeted to DM+ late endosomes for presentation to influenza virus–specific CD4 T cells. By contrast, mature DCs exclusively use recycling MHC-II that traffics to both early and late endosomes for antigenic peptide binding. Rab11a knockdown partially inhibits recycling of MHC-II in mature DCs and selectively inhibits presentation of an influenza virus hemagglutinin CD4 T cell epitope generated in early endosomes. These studies highlight a “division of labor” in MHC-II peptide binding, in which immature DCs preferentially present Ags acquired in Rab11a− DM+ late endosomes, whereas mature DCs use recycling MHC-II to present antigenic peptides acquired in both Rab11a+ early endosomes and Rab11a− endosomes for CD4 T cell activation.