Production of canine soluble CD40 ligand to induce maturation of monocyte derived dendritic cells for cancer immunotherapy

CD40 ligand (CD40L) expressed by activated T cells is shown to induce maturation of immature dendritic cells (DCs) and this maturation is a vital part in DC based tumor immunotherapy. We constructed an expression vector by cloning the extracellular domain of canine CD40L fused to the signal sequence of canine IL-12p40. When PBMCs were incubated with canine granulocyte-macrophage (GM) -CSF and IL-4, expression of CD86 was significantly elevated, but the majority of cells displayed the morphology of immature DCs. Following addition of the expressed canine soluble CD40L (csCD40L) to the DC-inducing culture, the cell morphology shifted to that of mature DCs, and expression of CD80, CD86, MHC class II and CD1a was significantly enhanced. This morphological change and enhancement of expression was observed even when the csCD40L was present only in the second half period of the culture. Furthermore, the csCD40L caused a significant increase in IL-12 production from DCs. These results show that the csCD40L significantly promotes the maturation and activation of canine monocyte derived DCs.