Functional Specialization of Dendritic Cell Subsets

Dendritic cells (DCs) are sentinels of the immune system. Under inflammatory conditions, DCs undergo various phenotypical changes, including DC migration, upregulation of co-stimulatory and activating molecules, secretion of cytokines, but also the processing of the engulfed antigens. The DC presents short antigenic peptides on the DC surface as peptide MHC class I or MHC class II complexes to CD8+ or CD4+ T cells, respectively. This article will provide a detailed overview on the antigen processing machineries and specialized functions of the increasing variety of DC subsets in mice and men.