TY - JOUR T1 - Ontogenic, phenotypic, and functional characterization of XCR1<sup>+</sup> dendritic cells leads to a consistent classification of intestinal dendritic cells based on the expression of XCR1 and SIRPα JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/004648 SP - 004648 AU - Martina Becker AU - Steffen Güttler AU - Annabell Bachem AU - Evelyn Hartung AU - Ahmed Mora AU - Anika Jäkel AU - Andreas Hutloff AU - Volker Henn AU - Hans W. Mages AU - Stephanie Gurka AU - Richard A. Kroczek Y1 - 2014/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2014/04/30/004648.abstract N2 - In the past, lack of lineage markers confounded the classification of dendritic cells (DC) in the intestine and impeded a full understanding of their location and function. We have recently shown that the chemokine receptor XCR1 is a lineage marker for cross-presenting DC in the spleen. Now we provide evidence that intestinal XCR1+ DC largely, but not fully, overlap with CD103+ CD11b- DC, the hypothesized correlate of “cross-presenting DC” in the intestine, and are selectively dependent in their development on the transcription factor Batf3. XCR1+ DC are located in the villi and epithelial crypts of the lamina propria of the small intestine, the T cell zones of Peyer’s Patches, and in the T cell zones and sinuses of the draining mesenteric lymph node. Functionally, we could demonstrate for the first time that XCR1+ / CD103+ CD11b- DC excel in the cross-presentation of orally applied antigen. Together, our data show that XCR1 is a lineage marker for cross-presenting DC also in the intestinal immune system. Further, extensive phenotypic analyses reveal that expression of the integrin SIRPα consistently demarcates the XCR1- DC population. We propose a simplified and consistent classification system for intestinal DC based on the expression of XCR1 and SIRPα. ER -