title: Dendritic cells under investigation in autoimmune disease.
abstract: Autoimmune disorders play an increasing role in public health, especially in light of the fact of the growing aged population, which primarily develop such diseases. A clear understanding of the mechanisms leading to the development of autoimmune responses and finally to autoimmune disease does not exist. Autoimmunity is characterized by the presence of autoantibodies and/or autoreactive T cells and the corresponding organ manifestation. Following the discovery of autoreactive T cells found in the periphery of mice and humans, the old immunological concept that autoreactive T cells are completely deleted in the thymus during evolution has been revised in recent years. Although antigen-presenting cells and particularly dendritic cells are known to play an important role in the regulation of immune responses and the activation of T cells, recent evidence suggests that the role of dendritic cells in the development of autoimmunity has been underestimated previously. This article aims to give a general overview on the basic immunological principles involved and gives a short review of the current literature on the functional relevance of dendritic cells in various human and murine autoimmune disorders.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cell Biology and Immunobiology of the Skin, Department of Dermatology, University of Münster, D-48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehling
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beissert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D018448:Models, Immunological; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism