Expression of dendritic cell markers CD11c/BDCA-1 and CD123/BDCA-2 in coronary artery disease upon activation in whole blood

This study suggests that when different DC numbers are found between two study populations, the DC activation status from both groups always needs to be verified, since a decrease in BDCA-2+ pDCs or an increase in CD11c+ mDCs or CD123+ pDCs can be due to the altered expression of these markers during activation. Given that CD11c, BDCA-1, CD123 and BDCA-2 are more abundantly expressed on blood DCs than typical activation markers like CD83, CD86 or CCR-7, the use of the ratios is an easy and reliable way to determine DC activation in whole blood assays.