Sheep dendritic cells CD26+ and CD26- versus total dendritic cells

Transcriptomic profiling of ovine skin lymph dendritic cell subsets CD26+ and CD26- compared to total enriched lymph dendritic cells. CD26+ and CD26- dendritic cells (DC) from sheep skin lymph were sorted by flow cytometry and were analysed for their transcriptomic profile. We demonstrate that the minor sheep CD26+ skin lymph DC subset shares significant transcriptomic similarities with mouse CD8a+ and human BDCA3+ DC. This allowed the identification of a common set of phenotypic characteristics for CD8a-like DC in the 3 mammalian species, i.e. SIRPlo, CADM1hi, CLEC9Ahi, DEC205hi, XCR1hi. Compared to CD26- DC, the sheep CD26+ DC show (1) potent stimulation of allogeneic naive CD8+ T cells with high selective induction of the Ifn-gamma and Il22 genes; (2) dominant efficacy in activating specific CD8+ T cells against exogenous soluble antigen; (3) selective expression of functional pathways associated to high capacity for antigen cross-presentation. Reference design (total enriched lymph dendritic cells) - Biological replicates: 2 sheep #10081 and #30066