The development of dendritic cells (DC) is still only partly understood. Recently established culture systems using CD34+ cells or monocytes as precursor cells for the generation of DC indicate the necessity of pro-inflammatory cytokines for their development. In vivo the contact to other cells or to the proteins of the extracellular matrix might also be essential for their development. In our experiments we used granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor- and IL-4-treated human monocytes as precursor cells to investigate the interaction of DC at different maturation stages with the matrix proteins fibronectin, collagen type I and collagen type IV. We demonstrate a strong beta1-integrin-mediated adherence of immature DC to fibronectin that is lost completely during maturation. The binding to collagen type I was less strong but induced a maturation of the precursor cells. After 3 days of culture on this protein, the cells showed all features of fully matured DC such as expression of CD83 and an excellent allostimulatory capacity. The reason for this effect was shown to be the induction of TNF-alpha production by the DC themselves. In contrast to the adhesion to fibronectin, the maturation and the cytokine production of DC induced by collagen type I could not be inhibited by blocking of beta1-integrins. These results indicate that proteins of the extracellular matrix play an important role in the development and function of human DC.