Patent ID: 7659119

Claim:
An in vitro method of producing stable mature CD83 positive dendritic cells from substantially CD83 negative immature dendritic cells which are derived from PBMC pluripotential cells having the potential of expressing either macrophage or dendritic cell characteristics, said method comprising the steps of: (a) culturing a population of peripheral blood mononuclear cells comprising pluripotential cells which are CD14 positive and substantially CD83 negative with at least one cytokine to produce a population of immature dendritic cells characterized as substantially CD14 and CD83 negative; and (b) culturing said substantially CD83 negative immature dendritic cells in the presence of a composition selected from the group consisting of fixed Staphylococcus aureus (SACS), peripheral blood mononuclear cell conditioned medium, and monocyte conditioned medium, in an amount and for a time sufficient for said immature dendritic cells to express characteristics of mature dendritic cells, wherein said characteristics of mature dendritic cells include an increase in CD83 and CD11c expression, a decrease in CD68 expression, and persistence of non-adherence for three days following removal of said composition from said culture of dendritic cells.