Question

Dendritic cells activate innate system presenting an antigen. To which types of cells this antigen is presented?

Answer 1

Dendritic cells are a type of antigen-presenting cells or APC of the immune system which are actively engaged in messanging the communication between antigen and the host cellular machinery. These cells present the antigen to the cells of immune system which can recognize the antigen present in the cell-mediated immune response and consequently activate downstream signalling cascades. The cellular communication takes place between the dendritic APC and the T-cytotoxic cell via the presence of antigen on the surface of the dendritic cell.

When an antigen is acquired by the dendritic cell, it resides on the surface of the dendritic cell membrane. This surface bound antigen is then presented to the cytotoxic T cell by the help of T-helper cells. The communication between these two cells is based upon the fact that the cytotoxic T cell contains surface antigen called cluster of differentiation or CD with a special class of CD8 on them which identifies the antigen as non-self molecule and thus, helps it to engulf, digest and evade the antigen from the body.

Thus in this way, a cumulative effort of APC and killer T-cell helps in evading an antigen from the body.