What is the importance of dendritic cells?
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 the characteristics of dendritic cells?
Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen-presenting cells, characterized by a distinctive morphology and expression of markers such as CD11c and major histocompatibility complex class II molecules (MHCII).
How do dendritic cells induce tolerance?
DCs promote immune tolerance by participating in the negative selection of autoreactive T cells in the thymus. Furthermore, to eliminate autoreactive T cells that have escaped thymic deletion, DCs also induce immune tolerance in the periphery through various mechanisms.
What are the properties of dendritic cells that are important for innate immune responses?
We have emphasized three intricate and innate properties of DCs that account for their sentinel and sensor roles in the immune system: (1) special mechanisms for antigen capture and processing, (2) the capacity to migrate to defined sites in lymphoid organs, especially the T cell areas, to initiate immunity, and (3) …
Where do dendritic cells differentiate?
Within the bone marrow, CDPs differentiate into pre-cDCs and pre-pDCs, and pre-pDCs further differentiate into pDCs. Both pDCs and pre-cDCs then migrate from the bone marrow to the lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues, where pre-cDCs terminally differentiate to cDC1 and cDC2 subsets (17–19).
What is induction of tolerance?
Induced tolerance occurs when the immune system actively avoids responding to an external antigen. This tolerance is induced by previous encounters with that antigen.
What are the mechanisms of tolerance?
Tolerance is defined as the diminished response to alcohol or other drugs over the course of repeated or prolonged exposure. This mechanism allows physiological processes to achieve stability in a constantly changing environment.
How are dendritic cells activated?
DCs are activated directly by conserved pathogen molecules and indirectly by inflammatory mediators produced by other cell types that recognise such molecules. In addition, it is likely that DCs are activated by poorly characterised cellular stress molecules and by disturbances in the internal milieu.