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Antigen presentation and T cell stimulation by dendritic cells

Pierre Guermonprez1, Jenny Valladeau, Laurence Zitvogel

  • 1Institut Curie, INSERM U520, 12 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France. Pierre.Guermonprez@curie.fr

Annual Review of Immunology
|February 28, 2002
PubMed

Dendritic cells take up antigens in peripheral tissues, process them into proteolytic peptides, and load these peptides onto major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and II molecules. Dendritic cells then migrate to secondary lymphoid organs and become competent to present antigens to T lymphocytes, thus initiating antigen-specific immune responses, or immunological tolerance. Antigen presentation in dendritic cells is finely regulated: antigen uptake, intracellular transport and degradation, and the traffic of MHC molecules are different in dendritic cells as compared to other antigen-presenting cells. These specializations account for dendritic cells' unique role in the initiation of immune responses and the induction of tolerance.

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