20 Moreover the histamine receptor expression pattern is similar to what is known for other DC subtypes, such as MoDC.15 The newly described H4R is of particular interest in inflammatory

skin diseases21 and immunomodulatory effects on DC were already identified so we decided to study this receptor in more detail. By flow cytometry we could show that slanDC express the H4R on the protein level and that the expression level does not change during culture of the cells. We did not observe differences in the basal H4R expression level in diseases like AD and psoriasis, but the Th1-associated cytokine IFN-γ led to an up-regulation of H4R expression of slanDC isolated from patients with AD, whereas in healthy and psoriatic cells no difference was observed. The Th2-associated cytokine IL-13 and the toll-like receptor see more ligand poly this website I:C could not significantly modulate the expression of H4R in any of the studied groups. The increase of H4R expression upon IFN-γ stimulation was also described

for inflammatory dendritic epidermal cells,16 a subset of DC only present in the inflamed skin of AD patients.22 In chronic lesions of AD, predominantly IFN-γ and other Th1 cytokines are present, therefore it is likely that slanDC up-regulate the expression of the H4R during and after the infiltration to these tissues. Interestingly we did not find up-regulation of the H4R on slanDC derived from psoriasis patients, although this disease is also

Th1-mediated. Possible explanations for this observation could be disease-dependent differences in IFN-γ-mediated signalling or variations in the expression density of IFN-γ receptors. It has been shown for example that atopic diseases are associated with genetic polymorphisms in the IFN-γ receptor 1 gene leading to higher transcription of this receptor.23 To study the functional effects of histamine on slanDC, we stimulated PBMC as well as isolated slanDC with histamine and H4R agonists. After histamine stimulation we observed impaired intracellular production and release into the supernatant 4��8C of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-12 in response to slanDC activation by the toll-like receptor agonist LPS. Although the down-regulation of TNF-α was solely mediated via the H4R, we observed a dual H2R and H4R mediated effect for IL-12, which is in accordance with previous findings on MoDC.15 These observations strongly suggest that histamine impairs the pro-inflammatory capacity of slanDC, because the key cytokines of early immune responses are no longer produced in high amounts. Interleukin-12 is an important activator of natural killer cells and induces the differentiation of CD4+ T cells into Th1 cells. TNF-α belongs to the family of acute-phase proteins and is known to induce inflammation and apoptosis, to lead to vasodilatation and increased vascular permeability and to be a potent activator of endothelial cells.