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NRI AT 20: DENDRITIC CELLS

The conventional dendritic cell lineage is born

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 21, page 623 (2021)Cite this article

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In work that led to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in 2011, Ralph Steinman originally defined dendritic cells (DCs) based on their phenotypical and functional attributes, including their dendritic shape and superior capacity to activate T cells. Although DCs fulfil a unique role as cellular sentinels that patrol tissues, acquire antigens and migrate to draining lymph nodes to activate naive T cells, the phenotypical and functional definitions of these cells have caused much confusion. For example, monocyte-derived cells and macrophages can display a dendritic-like morphology and can also activate T cells under certain conditions. The emergence of flow cytometry caused further confusion with many teams identifying ‘novel DC subsets’ based on the expression of a couple of cell surface markers. Moreover, as each lab had their own favourite markers, it was standard for more than 20 different DC subsets, each defined by different cell surface receptors, to be described at international DC meetings. As a result, it was impossible to align all these ‘DC subsets’ across tissues and species.

The light at the end of the tunnel came in 2007 when two seminal back-to-back papers in Nature Immunology provided the first solid basis for separating DCs from monocytes and macrophages based on their ontogeny (Onai, N. et al., 2007; Naik, S. H. et al., 2007). Onai et al. and Naik et al. reported the identification of progenitors that could specifically give rise to DCs. In their study, Onai et al. described common DC progenitors (CDPs) that could give rise to conventional DCs (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), but not to monocytes and macrophages. Meanwhile, Naik et al. identified pre-cDCs, downstream of CDPs, that could give rise to cDCs but not to pDCs, monocytes or macrophages.

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References

Original articles

  • Onai, N. et al. Identification of clonogenic common Flt3+M-CSFR+ plasmacytoid and conventional dendritic cell progenitors in mouse bone marrow. Nat. Immunol. 8, 1207–1216 (2007)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VIB Center for Inflammation Research, Ghent, Belgium

    Martin Guilliams & Charlotte L. Scott

  2. Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Martin Guilliams & Charlotte L. Scott

Authors
  1. Martin Guilliams
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  2. Charlotte L. Scott
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Correspondence to Martin Guilliams or Charlotte L. Scott.

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Guilliams, M., Scott, C.L. The conventional dendritic cell lineage is born. Nat Rev Immunol 21, 623 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-021-00615-x

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