title: Human plasmacytoid-derived dendritic cells and the induction of T-regulatory cells.
abstract: Suppression by T-regulatory (Tr) cells is essential for the induction of T-cell tolerance and the prevention of autoimmune diseases, organ rejection, and graft-versus-host disease. Increasing attention has been devoted to understand the role of dendritic cells (DC) in the control of Tr-cell differentiation. Here we review the recent evidence that cluster designation (CD)40-ligand activated plasmacytoid-derived DCs (DC2) have the ability to induce primary Tr-cell differentiation. We propose that in addition to the regulatory functions of immature myeloid DC, Tr-cell induction by DC2 represents a nonredundant mechanism for the safeguard of peripheral T-cell tolerance. DC2 can be used as tool to drive potent antigen specific Tr-cell differentiation and expansion in vitro and in vivo.
authors.affiliation: DNAX Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA. m.gilliet@usz.ch
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gilliet
authors.forename: Yong-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000276:immunology*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*