Functions of myeloid and lymphoid dendritic cells

The bone marrow derived dendritic cell (DC) is an essential antigen present ing cell (APC) for the initiation of primary, T cell based immune responses . DC are a Icterogenous haematopoietic lineage, in that many subsets from d ifferent tissues show different surface phenotypes, but the ability to stim ulate antigen specific naive T cell proliferation appeals to be shared betw een these DC subsets. It has been suggested that the so called myeloid and lymphoid-derived subsets of DC perform distinct stimulatory or tolerogenic functions. However, recent data has blurred this apparent distinction of DC subset function and shown that both subsets are at least capable of stimul atory and possibly even tolerogenic functions. Thus, thr immunoregulatory p otential of DC may depend less on ontology than on recent activatory or dow nregulatory stimuli. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.