Dendritic cells

Abstract

Dendritic cells are potent stimulators of immune responses against foreign antigens. Recent advances in this area include the delineation of distinct developmental pathways for different dendritic cell subsets; the emerging concept that one dendritic cell subset has regulatory functions that may contribute to induction of tolerance to self antigens; increased understanding of the interaction of dendritic cells with microbial products and viruses, such as HIV; and the application of dendritic cells for immunotherapy in certain cancers and possibly for the induction of transplantation tolerance.