Human NK cells prime inflammatory DC precursors to induce Tc17 differentiation

Abstract

Adaptive immune responses are acknowledged to evolve from innate immunity. However, limited information exists regarding whether encounters between innate cells direct the generation of specialized T-cell subsets. We aim to understand how natural killer (NK) cells modulate cell-mediated immunity in humans. We found that human CD14(+)CD16(-) monocytes that differentiate into inflammatory dendritic cells (DCs) are shaped at the early stages of differentiation by cell-to-cell interactions with NK cells. Although a fraction of monocytes is eliminated by NK-cell-mediated cytotoxicity, the polarization of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) at the NKp30-stabilized synapses triggers a stable IFN-gamma signature in surviving monocytes that persists after their differentiation into DCs. Notably, NK-cell-instructed DCs drive the priming of type 17 CD8(+) T cells (Tc17) with the capacity to produce IFN-gamma and interleukin-17A. Compared with healthy donors, this cellular network is impaired in patients with classical NK-cell deficiency driven by mutations in the GATA2 gene. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized connection by which Tc17-mediated immunity might be regulated by NK-cell-mediated tuning of antigen-presenting cells.