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Expanding dendritic cell nomenclature in the single-cell era

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 22, pages 67–68 (2022)Cite this article

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Single-cell technologies have enabled extensive profiling studies of human and mouse tissues and the identification of an ever-growing number of transcriptional clusters within the dendritic cell (DC) lineage. Here, we discuss the importance of differentiating cell subsets from cell states when annotating DC clusters and propose a revised nomenclature of the DC lineage that integrates experimentally validated knowledge and unbiased transcriptomic profiling results.

Studies in the past decade have revealed and refined the diversity of dendritic cell (DC) populations across tissues and species. Fate-mapping studies and genetically modified animal models have helped to identify DC progenitors and master transcription factors of the DC lineage, enabling a unifying DC nomenclature that integrates ontogeny, location, phenotype and function1. The current consensus describes two main subsets of conventional DCs (cDCs), known as type 1 cDC (cDC1) and type 2 cDC (cDC2), that arise from a common DC progenitor (CDP) derived from myeloid progenitors, independently of monocytes. cDC1s and cDC2s reside in all tissues, where they constitutively capture and process cell-associated antigens before migrating to tissue-draining lymph nodes (DLNs) in which they die after presenting antigen to T cells. The term cDC is used in opposition to plasmacytoid DC (pDC); pDCs arise mainly from lymphoid progenitors, they do not constitutively present cell-associated antigens to T cells, and their main function is to produce type I interferon in response to viral challenge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore

    Florent Ginhoux

  2. Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Villejuif, France

    Florent Ginhoux

  3. Inserm U1015, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    Florent Ginhoux

  4. Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Florent Ginhoux

  5. Translational Immunology Institute, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore, Singapore

    Florent Ginhoux

  6. Laboratory of Myeloid Cell Biology in Tissue Homeostasis and Regeneration, VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research, Ghent, Belgium

    Martin Guilliams

  7. Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Martin Guilliams

  8. Precision Immunology Institute, Human Immune Monitoring Center, Department of Oncological Sciences Tisch Cancer Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Miriam Merad

Authors
  1. Florent Ginhoux
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  2. Martin Guilliams
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  3. Miriam Merad
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Florent Ginhoux, Martin Guilliams or Miriam Merad.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Immunology thanks S. Nutt, who co-reviewed with M. Chopin, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ginhoux, F., Guilliams, M. & Merad, M. Expanding dendritic cell nomenclature in the single-cell era. Nat Rev Immunol 22, 67–68 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-022-00675-7

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