Understanding human dendritic cell biology through gene profiling

Dendritic cells are potent antigen presenting cells whose function has been associated with a variety of immunological disorders. Because of their relevance to human disease, extensive efforts have been made to gain a better understanding of their biology. One aspect of these efforts has been in the identification of pertinent molecules expressed in these cells through gene profiling experiments and proteomics. In this review, we summarize the results from the various profiling studies that have been done with human dendritic cells. We focus on molecules, which have been confirmed by other methods, such as quantitative PCR, or have been identified in multiple profiling studies to be expressed in the respective dendritic cell type. Through such profiling experiments and subsequent analysis, interesting molecules have been identified which can be further studied to determine their role in dendritic cell biology.