Dusp9 expression and function in dendritic cells

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) efficiently produce large amounts of type I interferon in response to TLR7 and TLR9 ligands, whereas conventional DCs (cDC) predominantly secrete high levels of the cytokines IL-10 and IL-12. The molecular basis underlying this distinct phenotype is not well understood. Here, we identified the MAPK phosphatase Dusp9/MKP-4 by transcriptome analysis as selectively expressed in pDC, but not cDC. We confirmed the constitutive expression of Dusp9 at the protein level in pDC generated in vitro by culture with Flt3L and ex vivo in sorted splenic pDC. Dusp9 expression was low in B220- bone marrow precursors and was up-regulated during pDC differentiation, concomitant with established pDC markers. Higher expression of Dusp9 in pDC correlated with impaired phosphorylation of the MAPK ERK1/2 upon TLR9 stimulation. Notably, Dusp9 was not expressed at detectable levels in human pDC, although these displayed similarly impaired activation of ERK1/2 MAPK compared to cDC. Enforced retroviral expression of Dusp9 in mouse GM-CSF-induced cDC increased the expression of TLR7/9-induced IL-12p40 and IFNwhereas IL-10 levels were diminished. Taken together, our results suggest that the species-specific, selective expression of Dusp9 in murine pDC contributes to the differential cytokine/interferon output of pDC and cDC. pDC and cDC subsets were purified from mouse spleens to high purity and analysed by Affymetrix GeneChips.