den Haan, J. M. M., Lehar, S. M. & Bevan, M. J. CD8+ but not CD8− dendritic cells cross-prime cytotoxic T cells in vivo. J. Exp. Med. 192, 1685–1696 (2000).
Hildner, K. et al. Batf3 deficiency reveals a critical role for CD8α+ dendritic cells in cytotoxic T cell immunity. Science 322, 1097–1100 (2008).
Li, L. et al. Cross-dressed CD8α+/CD103+ dendritic cells prime CD8+ T cells following vaccination. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 12716–12721 (2012).
Kim, E. H. et al. Squalene emulsion-based vaccine adjuvants stimulate CD8 T cell, but not antibody responses, through a RIPK3-dependent pathway. eLife 9, e52687 (2020).
Baden, L. R. et al. Efficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. N. Engl. J. Med. 384, 403–416 (2021).
Dickerman, B. A. et al. Comparative effectiveness of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 vaccines in U.s. veterans. N. Engl. J. Med. 386, 105–115 (2022).
Rubin, E. J. & Longo, D. L. Covid-19 mRNA vaccines—six of one, half a dozen of the other. N. Engl. J. Med. 386, 183–185 (2022).
Dimitriadis, G. J. Translation of rabbit globin mRNA introduced by liposomes into mouse lymphocytes. Nature 274, 923–924 (1978).
Wolff, J. A. et al. Direct gene transfer into mouse muscle in vivo. Science 247, 1465–1468 (1990).
Martinon, F. et al. Induction of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in vivo by liposome-entrapped mRNA. Eur. J. Immunol. 23, 1719–1722 (1993).
Pardi, N. et al. Nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines induce potent T follicular helper and germinal center B cell responses. J. Exp. Med. 215, 1571–1588 (2018).
Pardi, N. et al. Nucleoside-modified mRNA immunization elicits influenza virus hemagglutinin stalk-specific antibodies. Nat. Commun. 9, 3361 (2018).
Corbett, K. S. et al. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine design enabled by prototype pathogen preparedness. Nature 586, 567–571 (2020).
Oberhardt, V. et al. Rapid and stable mobilization of CD8+ T cells by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. Nature 597, 268–273 (2021).
Rojas, L. A. et al. Personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines stimulate T cells in pancreatic cancer. Nature 618, 144–150 (2023).
Kranz, L. M. et al. Systemic RNA delivery to dendritic cells exploits antiviral defence for cancer immunotherapy. Nature 534, 396–401 (2016).
Ohara, R. A. & Murphy, K. M. The evolving biology of cross-presentation. Semin. Immunol. 66, 101711 (2023).
Jo, S. et al. Shared pathway of WDFY4-dependent cross-presentation of immune complexes by cDC1 and cDC2. J. Exp. Med. 222, e20240955 (2025).
Liu, K. & Nussenzweig, M. C. Origin and development of dendritic cells. Immunol. Rev. 234, 45–54 (2010).
Murphy, T. L. et al. Transcriptional control of dendritic cell development. Annu. Rev. Immunol. 34, 93–119 (2016).
Toubai, T. et al. Host-derived CD8+ dendritic cells are required for induction of optimal graft-versus-tumor responses after experimental allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Blood 121, 4231–4241 (2013).
Sultan, H. et al. Neoantigen-specific cytotoxic Tr1 CD4 T cells suppress cancer immunotherapy. Nature 632, 182–191 (2024).
Pot, C., Apetoh, L. & Kuchroo, V. K. Type 1 regulatory T cells (Tr1) in autoimmunity. Semin. Immunol. 23, 202–208 (2011).
Bahl, K. et al. Preclinical and clinical demonstration of immunogenicity by mRNA vaccines against H10N8 and H7N9 influenza viruses. Mol. Ther. 25, 1316–1327 (2017).
Suzuki, Y. et al. Design and lyophilization of lipid nanoparticles for mRNA vaccine and its robust immune response in mice and nonhuman primates. Mol. Ther. Nucleic Acids 30, 226–240 (2022).
Hassett, K. J. et al. mRNA vaccine trafficking and resulting protein expression after intramuscular administration. Mol. Ther. Nucleic Acids 35, 102083 (2024).
Buckley, M. et al. Visualizing lipid nanoparticle trafficking for mRNA vaccine delivery in non-human primates. Mol. Ther. 33, 1105–1117 (2025).
Durai, V. et al. Cryptic activation of an Irf8 enhancer governs cDC1 fate specification. Nat. Immunol. 20, 1161–1173 (2019).
Liu, T.-T. et al. Ablation of cDC2 development by triple mutations within the Zeb2 enhancer. Nature 607, 142–148 (2022).
Dolan, B. P., Gibbs, K. D. Jr & Ostrand-Rosenberg, S. Dendritic cells cross-dressed with peptide MHC class I complexes prime CD8+ T cells. J. Immunol. 177, 6018–6024 (2006).
Wakim, L. M. & Bevan, M. J. Cross-dressed dendritic cells drive memory CD8+ T-cell activation after viral infection. Nature 471, 629–632 (2011).
Harding, C. V. & Unanue, E. R. Quantitation of antigen-presenting cell MHC class II/peptide complexes necessary for T-cell stimulation. Nature 346, 574–576 (1990).
Christinck, E. R., Luscher, M. A., Barber, B. H. & Williams, D. B. Peptide binding to class I MHC on living cells and quantitation of complexes required for CTL lysis. Nature 352, 67–70 (1991).
Sykulev, Y., Joo, M., Vturina, I., Tsomides, T. J. & Eisen, H. N. Evidence that a single peptide-MHC complex on a target cell can elicit a cytolytic T cell response. Immunity 4, 565–571 (1996).
Sprent, J., Miller, J. F. & Mitchell, G. F. Antigen-induced selective recruitment of circulating lymphocytes. Cell. Immunol. 2, 171–181 (1971).
Matloubian, M. et al. Lymphocyte egress from thymus and peripheral lymphoid organs is dependent on S1P receptor 1. Nature 427, 355–360 (2004).
Brinkman, C. C., Rouhani, S. J., Srinivasan, N. & Engelhard, V. H. Peripheral tissue homing receptors enable T cell entry into lymph nodes and affect the anatomical distribution of memory cells. J. Immunol. 191, 2412–2425 (2013).
Bénéchet, A. P. et al. Dynamics and genomic landscape of CD8+ T cells undergoing hepatic priming. Nature 574, 200–205 (2019).
Kim, M. et al. Exogenous RNA surveillance by proton-sensing TRIM25. Science 388, eads4539 (2025).
Theisen, D. J. et al. WDFY4 is required for cross-presentation in response to viral and tumor antigens. Science 362, 694–699 (2018).
Chatterjee, F. & Spranger, S. MHC-dressing on dendritic cells: boosting anti-tumor immunity via unconventional tumor antigen presentation. Semin. Immunol. 66, 101710 (2023).
Bernabeu, C., van de Rijn, M., Lerch, P. G. & Terhorst, C. P. β2-microglobulin from serum associates with MHC class I antigens on the surface of cultured cells. Nature 308, 642–645 (1984).
Duong, E. et al. Type I interferon activates MHC class I-dressed CD11b+ conventional dendritic cells to promote protective anti-tumor CD8+ T cell immunity. Immunity 55, 308–323 (2022).
Kobiyama, K. & Ishii, K. J. Making innate sense of mRNA vaccine adjuvanticity. Nat. Immunol. 23, 474–476 (2022).
Zinkernagel, R. M. & Althage, A. On the role of thymic epithelium vs. bone marrow-derived cells in repertoire selection of T cells. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 96, 8092–8097 (1999).
Sakoda, Y. et al. Donor-derived thymic-dependent T cells cause chronic graft-versus-host disease. Blood 109, 1756–1764 (2007).
Ferris, S. T. et al. cDC1 prime and are licensed by CD4+ T cells to induce anti-tumour immunity. Nature 584, 624–629 (2020).
Grippin, A. J. et al. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade. Nature 647, 488–497 (2025).
Krawczyk, P. S. et al. Re-adenylation by TENT5A enhances efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. Nature 641, 984–992 (2025).
Lobb, T. A. et al. Type I interferon restricts mRNA vaccine efficacy through suppression of antigen uptake in cDCs. npj Vaccines 11, 41 (2026).
Li, C. et al. Intravenous injection of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccine can induce acute myopericarditis in mouse model. Clin. Infect. Dis. 74, 1933–1950 (2022).
Mandl, J. N. et al. Quantification of lymph node transit times reveals differences in antigen surveillance strategies of naïve CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 18036–18041 (2012).
Mashayekhi, M. et al. CD8α+ dendritic cells are the critical source of interleukin-12 that controls acute infection by Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites. Immunity 35, 249–259 (2011).
MacNabb, B. W. et al. Dendritic cells can prime anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses through major histocompatibility complex cross-dressing. Immunity 55, 982–997 (2022).
Nakayama, M. Antigen presentation by MHC-dressed cells. Front. Immunol. 5, 672 (2014).
Lybarger, L., Wang, X., Harris, M. R., Virgin, H. W. IV & Hansen, T. H. Virus subversion of the MHC class I peptide-loading complex. Immunity 18, 121–130 (2003).
Theisen, D. J. et al. Batf3-dependent genes control tumor rejection induced by dendritic cells independently of cross-presentation. Cancer Immunol. Res. 7, 29–39 (2019).
Lee, D. D. et al. Correction: ADAPT-3D: accelerated deep adaptable processing of tissue for 3-dimensional fluorescence tissue imaging for research and clinical settings. Sci. Rep. 15, 32625 (2025).
Matsushita, H. et al. Cancer exome analysis reveals a T-cell-dependent mechanism of cancer immunoediting. Nature 482, 400–404 (2012).
Hao, Y. et al. Dictionary learning for integrative, multimodal and scalable single-cell analysis. Nat. Biotechnol. 42, 293–304 (2024).