树突细胞（DCs）对于启动和调节适应性免疫反应至关重要。当遇到免疫刺激如细菌和病毒感染、寄生虫入侵和死细胞碎片时，DCs会捕获抗原、成熟、获得免疫刺激活性并向未经历过的T细胞传递免疫信息。然后，被激活的细胞毒性CD8+ T细胞直接杀死被感染的细胞，而CD4+ T辅助细胞释放细胞因子以帮助其他免疫细胞的活动，并帮助B细胞产生抗体。因此，深入了解DC成熟过程对于我们理解免疫系统的工作原理，并开发新的治疗感染、癌症和自身免疫病的医疗方法是必要的。本文总结了DC成熟过程，包括静息状态下的DC环境探测和抗原采样、细胞表面上的抗原处理和呈递、DC迁移、DC-T细胞相互作用和T细胞激活。高级成像技术的应用可以在超高分辨率下可视化亚细胞和分子过程。DC位置和迁移的时空跟踪揭示了感染期间DC行为的动态，为DC生物学带来新的视角。Copyright © 2023 Xiao and Xia.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are crucial for the initiation and regulation of adaptive immune responses. When encountering immune stimulus such as bacterial and viral infection, parasite invasion and dead cell debris, DCs capture antigens, mature, acquire immunostimulatory activity and transmit the immune information to naïve T cells. Then activated cytotoxic CD8+ T cells directly kill the infected cells, while CD4+ T helper cells release cytokines to aid the activity of other immune cells, and help B cells produce antibodies. Thus, detailed insights into the DC maturation process are necessary for us to understand the working principle of immune system, and develop new medical treatments for infection, cancer and autoimmune disease. This review summarizes the DC maturation process, including environment sensing and antigen sampling by resting DCs, antigen processing and presentation on the cell surface, DC migration, DC-T cell interaction and T cell activation. Application of advanced imaging modalities allows visualization of subcellular and molecular processes in a super-high resolution. The spatiotemporal tracking of DCs position and migration reveals dynamics of DC behavior during infection, shedding novel lights on DC biology.Copyright © 2023 Xiao and Xia.