Talk:Dendritic cell

"Dendritic cell" looks good to me, though there are 2 places where I wondered a bit:

• The article says "Dendritic cells constantly sample the surroundings for viruses and bacteria": to me, this makes dendritic cells sound 'smarter' than they are. They respond to foreign, or non-self, proteins, they don't know if it's viral or bacterial or anything other than non-self. But this may be more obscure than the way you have it.
• I don't know that I'd call helper T-cells the HIV virus's "true host": HIV infects a lot of cells, though CD-4 cells are a special target and a major means of increasing the level of infection.

As for your specific questions:

• I don't know how motile they are in tissue. I'd BET they move around a bit, but I don't KNOW that this is the case.
• the short answer is they develop from monocytes - they seem to be CD14+ monocytes. The long answer is that this is an area of active research and the exact understanding of how dendritic cells develop is likely to change as further research is done. But I think the general idea that once a cell is a macrophage it's too late for it to become a dendritic cell is sound. -- Someone else 22:59 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)