Talk:Dendritic cell

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Axel,

"Dendritic cell" looks good to me, though there are 2 places where I wondered a bit:

  • The article says "Dendritic cells constantly sample the surroundings for viruses and bacteria": to me, this makes dendritic cells sound 'smarter' than they are. They respond to foreign, or non-self, proteins, they don't know if it's viral or bacterial or anything other than non-self. But this may be more obscure than the way you have it.
  • I don't know that I'd call helper T-cells the HIV virus's "true host": HIV infects a lot of cells, though CD-4 cells are a special target and a major means of increasing the level of infection.

As for your specific questions:

  • I don't know how motile they are in tissue. I'd BET they move around a bit, but I don't KNOW that this is the case.
  • the short answer is they develop from monocytes - they seem to be CD14+ monocytes. The long answer is that this is an area of active research and the exact understanding of how dendritic cells develop is likely to change as further research is done. But I think the general idea that once a cell is a macrophage it's too late for it to become a dendritic cell is sound. -- Someone else 22:59 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

[edit] New subtitles to make the articel more organised

Do you think we should split the article into sections to make it easier to read?? Also, i think we should add in which cytokines activate the dendritic cells to migrate, eg. IL-1 and TNF produced by macrophages when they encounter microbes. (REFRENCE: Basic Immunology Functions & Disorders of the Immune System 2nd Edition 2004 By AK Abbas et al.) --LowLifer 06:29, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] sensing viruses or bacteria

Actually, with due respect, we think the dendritic cells do "know" whether they are sensing viruses or bacteria (or for that matter fungi etc) because they have Toll-like receptors on their surface which help them 'recognise' different components of different types of organism, e.g. cell wall components of different types of bacteria. [Incidentally, this is my first ever entry and I hope it works!] -- comment by 163.1.212.43, 5/3/2006

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --Arcadian 16:17, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Follicular dendritic cells are not Atigen presenting cells (APCs) They are MHC II negative and should not be included in this article