DENDRITIC CELLS IN THE TRACHEA

Dendritic cells (DC) play an important role in immune responses and also in the development of the immune system, being involved in antigen uptake, processing and presentation. However, there is little information on the distribution of DC in the lung, and particularly little on the nature of DC in early life. In this month’s issue of Thorax, Tschernig and colleagues report a study of DC in human post mortem tracheal mucosa in situ using a set of recently available antibodies including DC-SIGN as a specific marker of DC. Correlations were observed between the expression of DC-SIGN and co-stimulatory and adhesion molecules. Relative distribution in the mucosal layers was already present early in life, but higher cell densities were found at the ventral tracheal site of patients older than 1 year than in infants in the first year of life. The authors conclude that these findings …