During the process of DC growth and maturation, nonspecific
sampling of the local microenvironment takes place in immature
DCs, whereas mature DCs demonstrate significantly reduced
nonspecific endocytosis of de novo antigens in the immediate
microenvironment. We examined the effect of altering HS Nsulfation
or expression of the major HSPG core protein syndecan-4
on endocytosis using ovalbumin uptake.