Premium
Chemokines and dendritic cells: A crucial alliance
Author(s) -
McColl Shaun R
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
immunology and cell biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0818-9641
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1711.2002.01113.x
Subject(s) - alliance , chemokine , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , immunology , geography , inflammation , archaeology
Dendritic cells (DC) are bone marrow‐derived professional antigen‐presenting cells that function as sentinels of the immune system. Their importance in immunity resides in their unique ability to prime or tolerize T lymphocytes, thereby initiating or inhibiting immune responses. They reside in all tissues and organs and upon appropriate activation, migrate to secondary lymphoid organs to present antigen to T lymphocytes in the T cell zones. Because of this central role in T cell activation, there is a great deal of interest in using DC therapeutically to deliver positive or negative signals to the immune system. The DC system is critically dependent on the ability of DC at different stages of maturation to respond to a range of soluble and cell‐bound signals, including members of the chemokine gene superfamily. This review will describe the interactions between DC and the chemokine system.