title: Origin, precursors and differentiation of mouse dendritic cells.
abstract: Functional specialization allows defined dendritic-cell (DC) subsets to induce efficient defence mechanisms against pathogens and tumour cells, and maintain T-cell tolerance by inducing the inactivation of autoreactive T cells. A crucial question, which has important implications for both our understanding of the induction and control of immunity by DCs, as well as the use of DCs for immunotherapy, is whether the functional diversity of DCs results from the existence of developmentally independent DC subpopulations, or whether DC subsets that share a common differentiation origin acquire specific functions in response to environmental signals. This review discusses recent findings on mouse DC development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid 28040, Spain. ardavin@bio.ucm.es
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ardavín
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D015672:Erythroid Precursor Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D023461:Myeloid Progenitor Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology