Alterations to dendritic cell (DC) progenitors in the bone marrow (BM) may contribute to long-lasting systemic immunosuppression (>28 d) following exposure of the skin of mice to erythemal UV radiation (UVR). DCs differentiated in vitro from the BM of mice 3 d after UVR (8 kJ/m(2)) have a reduced capacity to initiate immunity (both skin and airways) when adoptively transferred into naive mice. Studies in IL-10(-/-) mice suggested that UV-induced IL-10 was not significantly involved. To investigate the immune capabilities of peripheral tissue DCs generated in vivo from the BM of UV-irradiated mice, chimeric mice were established. Sixteen weeks after reconstitution, contact hypersensitivity responses were significantly reduced in mice reconstituted with BM from UV-irradiated mice (UV-chimeric). When the dorsal skin of UV-chimeric mice was challenged with innate inflammatory agents, the hypertrophy induced in the draining lymph nodes was minimal and significantly less than that measured in control-chimeric mice challenged with the same inflammatory agent. When DCs were differentiated from the BM of UV-chimeric mice using FLT3 ligand or GM-CSF + IL-4, the cells maintained a reduced priming ability. The diminished responses in UV-chimeric mice were not due to different numerical or proportional reconstitution of BM or the hematopoietic cells in blood, lymph nodes, and skin. Erythemal UVR may imprint a long-lasting epigenetic effect on DC progenitors in the BM and alter the function of their terminally differentiated progeny.