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Concept
Dendritic cell
Summary
A dendritic cell (DC) is an antigen-presenting cell (also known as an accessory cell) of the mammalian immune system. A DC's 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 adaptive immune systems.
Dendritic cells are present in tissues that are in contact with the body's external environment, such as the skin (where there is a specialized dendritic cell type called the Langerhans cell), and the inner lining of the nose, lungs, stomach and intestines. They can also be found in an immature state in the blood. Once activated, they migrate to the lymph nodes, where they interact with T cells and B cells to initiate and shape the adaptive immune response. At certain development stages they grow branched projections, the dendrites, that give the cell its name (δένδρον or déndron being Greek for 'tree'). While similar in appearance to the dendrites of neurons, these are structures distinct from them. Immature dendritic cells are also called veiled cells, as they possess large cytoplasmic 'veils' rather than dendrites.
Dendritic cells were first described by Paul Langerhans (hence Langerhans cells) in the late nineteenth century. The term dendritic cells was coined in 1973 by Ralph M. Steinman and Zanvil A. Cohn. For discovering the central role of dendritic cells in the adaptive immune response, Steinman was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2007 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011.
The morphology of dendritic cells results in a very large surface-to-volume ratio. That is, the dendritic cell has a very large surface area compared to the overall cell volume.
Plasmacytoid dendritic cell
The most common division of dendritic cells is conventional dendritic cells (a.k.a. myeloid dendritic cells) vs. plasmacytoid dendritic cell (most likely of lymphoid lineage) as described in the table below:
The markers BDCA-2, BDCA-3, and BDCA-4 can be used to discriminate among the types.
Official source
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