Activation of chicken bone marrow-derived dendritic cells induced by a Salmonella Enteritidis ghost vaccine candidate

Bacterial Ghost-based vaccine development has been applied to a variety of gram-negative bacteria. Developed Salmonella Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) ghost are promising vaccine candidates because of their immunogenic and enhanced biosafety potential. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the immunostimulatory effect of a S. Enteritidis ghost vaccine on the maturation of chicken bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (chBM-DCs) in vitro. The immature chBM-DCs were stimulated with S. Enteritidis ghost vaccine candidate. The vaccine efficiently stimulated maturation events in chBM-DCs, indicated by up-regulated expression of CD40, CD80, and MHC-II molecules. Immature BM-DCs responded to stimulation with S. Enteritidis ghost by increased expression of IL-6 and IL-12p40 cytokines. Also, S. Enteritidis ghost stimulated chBM-DCs induced the significant expression of IFN-γ and IL-2 in co-cultured autologous CD4+ T cells. In conclusion, our data suggest that S. Enteritidis ghost vaccine candidate is capable of activating and interacting with chBM-DCs. The results from current study may help for rational designing of Salmonella ghost based heterologous antigen delivery platforms to dendritic cells.