Dendritic cells cultured with human umbilical cord serum instead of fetal calf serum

To investigate whether the dendritic cells(DC) could grow up in cultural system with umbilical cord serum(UCS), the UCS was used in the culture in stead of fetal calf serum. The phenotype of dendritic cells was detected by flow cytometry and the antigen presenting ability of DC in allo MLR was measured by MTT assay. The results showed that DC grown in UCS (UCS DC) had higher expression rate of CD86, CD83 and HLA DR than that in grown in FCS(FCS DC). (P0.05), and their expression of CD1a was lower than that of FCS DC. The ability to induce T cell proliferation had no difference between UCS DC and FCS DC. It is suggested that dendritic cells with more mature phenotype had been produced in the medium containing UCS than those in the medium containing FCS, and UCS DC possessed potent ability to stimulate proliferation of allogeneic T cells.