The process in which a precursor cell type acquires the specialized features of a dendritic cell. A dendritic cell is a leukocyte of dendritic lineage specialized in the uptake, processing, and transport of antigens to lymph nodes for the purpose of stimulating an immune response via T cell activation. [ GOC:pr http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/CL_0000451 ]
Term information
Note that immunologists typically use the word 'maturation' to refer to dendritic cells undergoing the process that GO describes as 'cell differentiation'.