Comparison of five currently used DC maturation strategies andtheir influence on DC characteristics

As antigen-presenting cells, dendritic cells (DC) are able to present tumor antigens and effectively stimulate both helper and cytotoxic T-cell response targeted against a tumor. That makes them a suitable source for in vitro cancer vaccines production. Increasing knowledge of DC biology leads to improved methods of their in vitro preparation, but there is to date no consensus specifying optimal conditions for that. It has been demonstrated that DCs derived from monocytic precursors matured in different conditions differ in their characteristics and functional adjustment. We compared five previously described cytokine combinations, currently used for DC maturation, and their effect on following DC characteristics: morphology, surface markers, cytokine production profiles, migratory capacity, capability of T-cell activation and cytotoxicity induction.