Inflammatory dendritic cells in mice and humans

• InfDCs are a distinct subset of DCs that appear during inflammation.
• InfDCs derive from monocytes that differentiate in situ at the site of inflammation.
• InfDCs can migrate to the lymph nodes and activate CD4+ and CD8+ T cells.
• Human equivalents of infDCs have been identified in several inflammatory diseases.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are a heterogeneous population of professional antigen-presenting cells. Several murine DC subsets have been identified that differ in their phenotype and functional properties. In the steady state, DC precursors originating from the bone marrow give rise to lymphoid-organ-resident DCs and to migratory tissue DCs. During inflammation, an additional DC subset has been described, so-called inflammatory DCs (infDCs), which differentiate from monocytes recruited to the site of inflammation. Here, we review recent work on the development and functions of murine infDCs. We also examine the criteria that define infDCs. Finally, we discuss the characterization of human infDCs and their potential role in inflammatory diseases.