Sulforaphane Enhances MHC Class II-Restricted Presentation of Exogenous Antigens

• Published in: Biomolecules & therapeutics Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 77 - 83
• Main Authors: Shin, Seul-Mee, Jung, Ki-Sung, Park, Yoon-Hee, Ko, Young-Wook, Lee, Chong-Kil, Cho, Kyung-Hae, Ha, Nam-Joo, Kim, Kyung-Jae
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Korean
• Published: 한국응용약물학회 31.01.2011
• Subjects: Antigen processing; Dendritic cells; MHC class II; Sulforaphane; Dendritic cells; MHC class II; Sulforaphane; Antigen processing
• ISSN: 1976-9148; 2005-4483

Sulforaphane is an isothiocyanate found in cruciferous vegetables that has been reported to be an effective cancer preventive agent inducing growth arrest and/or cell death in cancer cells of various organs. This paper reports that sulforaphane exerts immunomodulatory activity on the MHC-restricted antigen presenting function. Sulforaphane efficiently increased the class II-restricted presentation of an exogenous antigen, ovalbumin (OVA), in both dendritic cells (DCs) and peritoneal macrophages in vitro. The class II-restricted OVA presentation-enhancing activity of sulforaphane was also confirmed using mice that had been injected with sulforaphane followed by soluble OVA. On the other hand, sulforaphane did not affect the class I-restricted presentation of exogenous OVA at concentrations that increase the class II-restricted antigen presentation. At a high concentration (20 uM), sulforaphane inhibited the class I-restricted presentation of exogenous OVA. Sulforaphane did not affect the phagocytic activity of the DCs, and the cell surface expression of total H-2Kb, B7-1, B7-2 and CD54 molecules, even though it increased the expression of I-Ab molecules to a barely discernable level. These results show that sulforaphane increases the class II-restricted antigen presenting function preferentially, and might provide a novel insight into the mechanisms of the anti-cancer effects of sulforaphane