Nature Immunology 7, 265 - 273 (2006)
Published online: 29 January 2006; | doi:10.1038/ni1307
Langerhans cells arise from monocytes in vivoFlorent Ginhoux1, Frank Tacke1, Veronique Angeli1, Milena Bogunovic1, Martine Loubeau1, Xu-Ming Dai2, E Richard Stanley2, Gwendalyn J Randolph1
& Miriam Merad11
Department of Gene and Cell Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA. 2
Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Miriam Merad miriam.merad@mssm.edu Langerhans cells (LCs) are the only dendritic cells of the epidermis and constitute the first immunological barrier against pathogens and environmental insults. The factors regulating LC homeostasis remain elusive and the direct circulating LC precursor has not yet been identified in vivo. Here we report an absence of LCs in mice deficient in the receptor for colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) in steady-state conditions. Using bone marrow chimeric mice, we have established that CSF-1 receptor–deficient hematopoietic precursors failed to reconstitute the LC pool in inflamed skin. Furthermore, monocytes with high expression of the monocyte marker Gr-1 (also called Ly-6c/G) were specifically recruited to the inflamed skin, proliferated locally and differentiated into LCs. These results identify Gr-1hi monocytes as the direct precursors for LCs in vivo and establish the importance of the CSF-1 receptor in this process.
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