Background Recent studies have demonstrated that dexamethasone (DEX) interferes with immune responses by targeting key functions of dendritic cells (DCs) at the earliest stage. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms are still incompletely understood. This study aimed to explore the possible mechanisms by investigating the roles of DEX on differentiation, maturation & function of murine DCs and the effects of DEX on DCs via Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-nuclear factor (NF)-κB mediated signal pathway.Methods Immature DCs (imDCs) were cultured from murine bone marrow (BM) cells. We added DEX into culture medium at different time. The expression of CD11c, CD86 and I-A~b (mouse MHC class Ⅱ molecule) was determined by flow cytometry. We determined the expression of NF-κB and its inhibitory protein I-κBα by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and West blotting, respectively. The productions of interleukin (IL)-12p70 and IL-10 in cell culture supatants were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results DEX impaired differentiation of DCs from murine bone marrow progenitors, and inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced maturation of DCs. DEX significantly inhibited NF-κB expression of normal DCs, the higher the DEX concentration or the longer the DEX treatment time, the more obvious the effect. However, DEX had little effect on LPS-induced NF-κB activation, and partially impaired LPS-induced I-κBα degradation. DEX significantly decreased LPS induced IL-12p70 production by DCs. Interestingly, our results showed a synergistic effect between DEX and LPS on the production of IL-10 by DCs.Conclusions DEX inhibits the differentiation and maturation of murine DCs involved in TLR4-I-κB-NF-κB pathway, and also indirectly impairs Th1 development and interferes with the Th1-Th2 balance through IL-12 and/or IL-10 secretion by DCs.