Immunomodulatory dendritic cells require autologous serum to circumvent nonspecific immunosuppressive activity in vivo.

ABSTRACT: In immunotherapy, dendritic cells (DCs) can be used as powerful antigen-presenting cells to enhance or suppress antigen-specific immunity upon in vivo transfer in mice or humans. However, to generate sufficient numbers of DCs, most protocols include an ex vivo culture step, wherein the cells are exposed to heterologous serum and/or antigenic stimuli. In mouse models of virus infection and virus-induced autoimmunity, we tested how heterologous serum affects the immunomodulatory capacity of immature DCs generated in the presence of IL-10 by comparing fetal bovine serum (FBS)- or normal mouse serum (NMS)-supplemented DC cultures. We show that FBS-exposed DCs induce a systemic immune deviation characterized by reduction of virus-specific T cells, delayed viral clearance, and enhanced systemic

SUBMITTER: Haase C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1895252 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature