DNGR-1 regulates proliferation and migration of bone marrow dendritic cell progenitors

Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are sentinel cells that play a crucial role in both innate and adaptive immune responses. cDCs originate from a progenitor (pre-cDC) in the bone marrow (BM) that travels via the blood to seed peripheral tissues before locally differentiating into functional cDC1 and cDC2 cells, as part of a process known as cDCpoiesis. How cDCpoiesis is regulated and whether this affects the output of cDCs is poorly understood. In this study, we show that DNGR-1, an innate immune receptor expressed by cDC progenitors and type 1 cDCs, can regulate cDCpoiesis in mice. In a competitive chimera setting, cDC progenitors lacking DNGR-1 exhibit increased proliferation and tissue migratory potential. Compared with their WT counterparts, DNGR-1-deficient cDC progenitor cells display superior colonization of peripheral tissues but an altered distribution. These findings suggest that cDCpoiesis can be regulated in part by precursor cell-intrinsic processes driven by signals from innate immune receptors such as DNGR-1 that may respond to alterations in the BM milieu.