Most lymphoid organ dendritic cell types are phenotypically and functionally immature

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs) have been thought to follow a life history, typified by Langerhans cells (LCs), with 2 major developmental stages: an immature stage that captures antigens in the periphery and a mature stage that presents those antigens in the lymphoid organs. However, a systematic assessment of the maturity of lymphoid organ DCs has been lacking. We have analyzed the maturity of the DC types found in the steady state in the spleen, lymph nodes (LNs), and thymus. The DCs that migrate into the iliac, meseriteric, mediastinal, or subcutaneous LNs from peripheral tissues were mature and therefore could not process and present newly encountered antigens. However, all the other DC types wer..