Human dendritic cells in cancer

Dendritic cells (DCs) are currently considered to be of utmost importance for orchestrating appropriate immune responses in vivo, and play critical roles in maintaining the distinction between self and non-self. They are distributed throughout most tissues of the body, where they are well positioned to act as innate sentinel cells that can detect and rapidly respond to pathogenic challenges. DCs are known as professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) because they sample antigens present within the surrounding tissue microenvironment and process these antigens for presentation to cells of the adaptive immune system, such as T and B lymphocytes. By virtue of their activation status, DCs provide either stimulatory or inhibitory signals to lymphocytes, and thus provide a crucial nexus point by which innate and adaptive immune responses are linked.