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Limited reliability of E-cadherin as a specific marker for in vitro-generated Langerhans cells

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Abstract

Langerhans cells (LC) are a unique population of dendritic cells (DC) found in the epidermis where they can be identified by the expression of CD1a, E-cadherin and cytoplasmic Birbeck granules (BG) as their hallmark. Over the past years many techniques have been described to generate LC in vitro from either monocytes or CD34+ hematopoietic cell progenitors. Antibodies against Lag and Langerin (two epitopes associated with BG) and E-cadherin (a Ca2+-dependent homophilic adhesion molecule) have been used to detect in vitro-generated LC. In this study we investigated whether the expression of E-cadherin on in vitro-generated CD1a+ from either CD34+ cells or monocytes is able to discriminate LC from other DC. Our results demonstrate that E-cadherin alone is not a reliable marker to specifically identify in vitro-generated LC.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Forschergruppe 367/1-2 (project 2) and the Sonderforschungsbereich 284 (project C8) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53105, Bonn, Germany

    J.-P. Allam, E. Geiger, S. Kraft & T. Bieber

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  1. J.-P. Allam
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  2. E. Geiger
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  3. S. Kraft
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  4. T. Bieber
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Correspondence to T. Bieber.

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Allam, JP., Geiger, E., Kraft, S. et al. Limited reliability of E-cadherin as a specific marker for in vitro-generated Langerhans cells. Arch Dermatol Res 295, 263–268 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-003-0423-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-003-0423-6

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