[Progress in application of laser scanning confocal microscope to studies on dendritic cells]

The defensive function of immune response in vivo is very important. Antigen presenting cells (APC) is the hinge in starting specific immune response. Dendritic cells (DC) are the most potent APC, which participate in double-regulating the immune response. Laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) becomes a powerful tool in the fields of basic medicine and clinical medicine with its high resolving power, high sensitivity, optical section, three-dimensional reconstruction and dynamic analysis. And it makes the study on DC more thoroughly and deeper. In this paper, we review the recent progress in the applications of LSCM to studies on the morphology, immunofluorescence localization and the functional analysis of dendritic cells.