Description
Dendritic cells (DCs) are a complex group of cells which play a critical role in vertebrate immunity. Spleen or lymph node resident DCs are subdivided into conventional DC (cDC) subsets (CD11b and CD8alpha in mouse; BDCA1 and BDCA3 in man) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). It is currently unclear if these various DC populations belong to a unique hematopoietic lineage and if the subsets identified in the mouse and human systems are evolutionary homologs. To bring novel insights into these questions, we sought conserved genetic signatures for these DCs through the analysis of a compendium of genome-wide expression profiles of mouse or human leukocytes.