Decisions About Dendritic Cells: Past, Present, and Future

A properly functioning adaptive immune system signifies the best features of life. It is diverse beyond compare, tolerant without fail, and capable of behaving appropriately with a myriad of infections and other challenges. Dendritic cells are required to explain how this remarkable system is energized and directed. I frame this article in terms of the major decisions that my colleagues and I have made in dendritic cell science and some of the guiding themes at the time the decisions were made. As a result of progress worldwide, there is now evidence of a central role for dendritic cells in initiating antigen-specific immunity and tolerance. The in vivo distribution and development of a previously unrecognized…