4.6 Review

Imaging dendritic cell functions

Journal

IMMUNOLOGICAL REVIEWS
Volume 306, Issue 1, Pages 137-163

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/imr.13050

Keywords

antigen presentation; dendritic cells (DCs); imaging; immune response; maturation; migration

Categories

Funding

  1. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [158989968, 39087428, FO334/7--1]
  2. Deutsche Zentrum fur Lungenforschung [82DZL002B1]
  3. Deutsches Zentrum fur Infektionsforschung [80018019238]

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Dendritic cells (DCs) play a crucial role in initiating adaptive immune responses by capturing antigens during inflammation and inducing tolerance under non-inflammatory conditions. Understanding DC biology is essential for vaccine development and autoimmune disease prevention. Bioimaging tools are crucial for tracking DCs in tissues and organs and visualizing subcellular and molecular processes.
Dendritic cells (DCs) are crucial for the appropriate initiation of adaptive immune responses. During inflammation, DCs capture antigens, mature, and migrate to lymphoid tissues to present foreign material to naive T cells. These cells get activated and differentiate either into pathogen-specific cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells that destroy infected cells or into CD4(+) T helper cells that, among other effector functions, orchestrate antibody production by B cells. DC-mediated antigen presentation is equally important in non-inflammatory conditions. Here, DCs mediate induction of tolerance by presenting self-antigens or harmless environmental antigens and induce differentiation of regulatory T cells or inactivation of self-reactive immune cells. Detailed insights into the biology of DCs are, therefore, crucial for the development of novel vaccines as well as the prevention of autoimmune diseases. As in many other life science areas, our understanding of DC biology would be extremely restricted without bioimaging, a compilation of methods that visualize biological processes. Spatiotemporal tracking of DCs relies on various imaging tools, which not only enable insights into their positioning and migration within tissues or entire organs but also allow visualization of subcellular and molecular processes. This review aims to provide an overview of the imaging toolbox and to provide examples of diverse imaging techniques used to obtain fundamental insights into DC biology.

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