The Activation Status of Dendritic Cells Is Crucial for Decision Making on Tolerance Versus Immunity

Dendritic cells (DCs) are distributed throughout the body in virtually all tissues, where they constantly sample the environment. Eventually, DCs migrate towards local lymph nodes and present major histocompatibility complex (MHC)–peptide complexes to T cells (1). Here, presentation either leads to activation of the T cell, or results in anergy of the respective T cells, depen ding on the circumstances.