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This Review integrates information fromin vitro and in vivomodels of dendritic-cell (DC) development to provide an emerging, but still fragmented, picture of the pathways and precursor cells that lead to the different DC subtypes in the steady state and during inflammation.
Notch proteins are known to have crucial roles in determining cell fate during lymphoid development. But now, new research indicates that Notch signalling might also be important during T-cell activation and differentiation in the periphery, as discussed in this Review.
Fine tuning of immunity is achieved through numerous mechanisms: chemokine sequestration by non-signalling chemokine 'decoy' receptors is one example. This Review describes the chemokine decoy receptors that have evolved in both humans and viruses to elude chemokine activities and divert leukocyte recruitment.
Recent studies of the expression patterns and intracellular locations of individual SNARE proteins, which control membrane-fusion events involved in intracellular trafficking, have begun to shed light on their functions in immune responses, including the secretion of immune mediators, phagocytosis and the formation of immunological synapses.
The complement system is known to be a main part of both innate and antibody-mediated immunity. Here the emerging role of complement in the regulation of the initiation, effector and contraction phases of the T-cell response is discussed, and new perspectives in this area are revealed.
Generating an effective AIDS vaccine remains a high priority. Are we any closer to reaching this goal? How might we overcome virus variability and generate a vaccine that elicits protective humoral and cellular immune responses at mucosal surfaces as well as systemically?
Perforin is crucial for inducing the death of infected or transformed cells by cytotoxic lymphocytes. Clues to its mechanism of action and role in immune homeostasis have been gained from analysis of patients with a severe immunodeficiency disorder that is due to perforin mutations.
