Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells, required for the initiation of naïve and memory T cell responses and regulation of adaptive immunity. The discovery of DCs in 1973, which culminated in the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011 for Ralph Steinman and colleagues, initially focused on the identification of adherent mononuclear cell fractions with uniquely stellate dendritic morphology, followed by key discoveries of their critical immunologic role in initiating and maintaining antigen-specific immunity and tolerance. The medical promise of marshaling these key capabilities of DCs for therapeutic modulation of antigen-specific immune responses has guided decades of research in hopes to achieve genuine physiologic partnership with the immune system. The potential uses of DCs in immunotherapeutic applications include cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders; thus, methods for rapid and reliable large-scale production of DCs have been of great academic and clinical interest. However, difficulties in obtaining DCs from lymphoid and peripheral tissues, low numbers and poor survival in culture, have led to advancements in ex vivo production of DCs, both for probing molecular details of DC function as well as for experimenting with their clinical utility. Here, we review the development of a diverse array of DC production methodologies, ranging from cytokine-based strategies to genetic engineering tools devised for enhancing DC-specific immunologic functions. Further, we explore the current state of DC therapies in clinic, as well as emerging insights into physiologic production of DCs inspired by existing therapies.

中文翻译：

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离体树突状细胞的产生-当前方法的关键比较。

树突状细胞（DC）是专业的抗原呈递细胞，是初始幼稚和记忆T细胞反应以及调节适应性免疫所必需的。DC的发现是1973年，最终获得了Ralph Steinman及其同事的2011年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖，最初着眼于鉴定具有独特星状树突形态的粘附单核细胞级分，然后是关键的免疫学作用的关键发现启动和维持抗原特异性免疫力和耐受性。整理DC的这些关键功能以治疗性调节抗原特异性免疫应答的医学前景指导了数十年的研究，希望与免疫系统建立真正的生理伙伴关系。DC在免疫治疗应用中的潜在用途包括癌症，传染病和自身免疫性疾病；因此，快速可靠地大规模生产DC的方法已经在学术和临床上引起了极大的兴趣。然而，从淋巴和周围组织获得DC的困难，数量少和在培养中的不良存活率导致DC的离体生产的进步，DC用于探测DC功能的分子细节以及用于试验其临床实用性。在这里，我们回顾了各种DC生产方法的发展，从基于细胞因子的策略到为增强DC特异性免疫功能而设计的基因工程工具。此外，我们探索了临床上DC疗法的现状，