The role of dendritic cells in vertebrates: a review

Dendritic cells are essential for the induction of adaptive immune responses. Their main function is to process antigen material and present it on the cell surface to the T cells of the immune system through a complex mechanism. Therefore, knowledge of this cell type is required to understand also the evolution of immune system in vertebrates. In fact from the amphioxus is possible to follow the evolution of these cells until the man where dendritic cells are present in myeloid and plasmacytoid lines. Besides recent studies define dendritic cells as an independent lineage of hematopoietic cells originating from a common precursor and distinct transcription factors, during the natural history, control the development of these cells until man. Using a comparative approach based on phenotype and function, this review attempts to give a key to classify DC in all classes of vertebrates.