What do dendritic cells display?

Dendritic cells (DCs) are known to be professional antigen-presenting cells (APC), as these cells are capable of presenting processed peptides from various antigens, initiating and modulating the adaptive immune response by activating both T and B lymphocytes (1, 2).

What does it mean when a cell is dendritic?

(den-DRIH-tik sel) A special type of immune cell that is found in tissues, such as the skin, and boosts immune responses by showing antigens on its surface to other cells of the immune system. A dendritic cell is a type of phagocyte and a type of antigen-presenting cell (APC).

What are the markers for dendritic cells?

Markers for dendritic cell precursors FLT3 has been reported to be a marker for MDP, CDP, pre-DCs. Other markers include CX3CR1 (MDP), CSF1R (CDP), and ITGAX (pre-DC).

What do dendritic cells look like?

Dendritic cells (DCs), named for their probing, ‘tree-like’ or dendritic shapes, are responsible for the initiation of adaptive immune responses and hence function as the ‘sentinels’ of the immune system.

What is dendritic cells in immunology?

Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells (also known as accessory cells) of the mammalian immune system. Their main function is to process antigen material and present it on the cell surface to the T cells of the immune system. They act as messengers between the innate and the adaptive immune systems.

What is the role of dendritic cells in the primary immune response?

Dendritic cells are central to the initiation of primary immune responses. They are the only antigen-presenting cell capable of stimulating naive T cells, and hence they are pivotal in the generation of adaptive immunity.

Is a dendritic cell a lymphocyte?

Introduction. Identified in mouse spleen for their peculiar shape and capacity to activate naïve lymphocytes (1–3), dendritic cells (DC) are considered the most efficient antigen presenting cells (APC) (3, 4), uniquely able to initiate, coordinate, and regulate adaptive immune responses.

What is the difference between pDC and cDC?

A series of studies have outlined distinct differences in the ability of DC subsets to induce immune responses. In particular, cDC have been implicated in driving a pro-allergic response, while pDC have been identified to block or “tolerize” the pulmonary immune environment against Th2 responses [6].

What role do dendritic cells play?

Dendritic cells (DCs) represent a heterogeneous family of immune cells that link innate and adaptive immunity. The main function of these innate cells is to capture, process, and present antigens to adaptive immune cells and mediate their polarization into effector cells (1).

What are conventional dendritic cells?

Definition. Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are innate immune cells. The term cDC refers to all DCs other than plasmacytoid DCs. They reside in tissues and, following tissue infection or injury, they become activated and migrate to draining lymph nodes to promote adaptive immune responses.

How are dendritic cells used to identify DCS?

Dendritic Cells markers. To date, no single cell marker has been found to be expressed exclusively on DCs, therefore a combination of the presence and absence of various cell markers can be used to identify the DCs.

What are the monocyte markers of dendritic cells?

Monocyte markers. Dendritic cells (DCs) are a functionally, developmentally and phenotypically diverse group of cells. In addition to being potent stimulators/activators of an adaptive immune response DCs can also initiate an innate immune response and even have a role in immune tolerance (Schraml & Sousa 2015).

Where does antigen capture and process in dendritic cells?

The immature cDCs capture and process antigen then transit from these tissues to lymphoid organs such as spleen and lymph nodes where they mature, up-regulate co-stimulatory molecules and present the antigen in the context of a MHC-II-peptide complex to lymphocytes (Geissmann et al. 2010).

How big is the nucleus of a dendritic cell?

With regards to morphology, they are medium-sized with an average diameter between that of lymphocytes and monocytes. They contain a rounded/ovoid nucleus which may appear slightly indented when viewed under the microscope.