Drinking a lot is good for dendritic cells.
Macropinocytosis is the actin-dependent formation of large vesicles, which allow the internalization of large quantities of fluid-phase solute. In the majority of cells examined, an exogenous stimulus is required to induce the initiation of this endocytic pathway. However, dendritic cells are thought to constitutively macropinocytose large quantities of exogenous solute as part of their sentinel function. In this review we discuss the evidence that dendritic cells macropinocytose exogenous solute and subsequently present antigenic peptides derived from internalized material to T cells. In addition, we put these data into the context of immune surveillance in vivo.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Penn State M.S. Hershey College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. ccn1@psu.edu
Christopher C
CC
Norbury
D017951:Antigen Presentation; D001692:Biological Transport / Q000276:immunology; D022162:Cytoplasmic Vesicles / Q000276:immunology; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D004705:Endocytosis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D010873:Pinocytosis / Q000276:immunology*; D014780:Viruses / Q000472:pathogenicity