The Lineage Relationship of Dendritic Cells with Other Haematopoietic Cells

Abstract

The lineage relationship of dendritic cells with other haematopoietic cells and within the broader class of dendritic cells is not well understood. Dendritic cells in different tissue sites and having slightly different characteristics all play a specialized role in maintaining self tolerance by the endocytosis and presentation of antigens within their environment. Recent evidence now suggests a possible lineage relationship between T cells and lymphoid dendritic cells and appears to conflict with the view that dendritic cells have a common origin with myeloid cells. One possibility is that dendritic cells mature in different tissue sites from bone marrow-derived precursors and develop region-specific characteristics which could reflect lineage differences.

Rat Spleen Dendritic Cells Express Natural Killer Cell Receptor Protein 1 (NKR-P1) and Have Cytotoxic Activity to Select Targets via a Ca2+-dependent Mechanism

“…The ontogeny of DC remains controversial ( 10 ); although most of these cells seem to have a myeloid origin, recent reports indicate that thymus DC are of lymphoid origin, sharing a common thymic precursor with T and NK cells ( 11 ). A common hematopoietic precursor for T, B, NK, and DC has also been described in humans ( 12 ) but, to the best of our knowledge, the presence of NK-related markers or functions on differentiated DC has not been previously described.…”