Many thanks to Gordon MacPherson ! I had read that article in Nature
Reviews Immunology but I have forgotten about it ! You're very right.
Anyway I disagree on the morphological difference between macrophages
and DCs : it seems to me in the same article is reported a reasonable
ontogeny for all human body phagocytes : DCs are just the term given
to macrophages resident into tissues,where they expand their surface
membrane in long arms (dendrites) to better endocytise particles.
> Do macrophages also present self-Ag to Th cells? <
Macrophages activated by pro-inflammatory cytokines up-regulate MHC
class II surface expression and certainly can act as
antigen-presenting cells for Th lymphocytes : immature macrophages
express very low surface MHC and they are far less effective as APCs.
Daniele
