Decoding the Heterogeneity of Human Dendritic Cell Subsets

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs) have been classified into distinct subsets based on phenotype and ontogeny. In the past few years, high throughput single-cell approaches have revealed further heterogeneity of human DCs, in particular at the transcriptomic level. Herein examined, are recent studies describing new human DC populations based on single-cell RNA-seq analysis, and a unified view of these emerging DC populations is presented. Also assessed are the features that define bona fide DC lineages, as opposed to cell states of the same lineage. Finally, where these newly described DC populations fit in the ontogeny-based classification of human DCs is examined.