Patent ID: 7198948

Claim:
An in vitro method for producing stable mature dendritic cells from pluripotential cells, comprising: a) contacting said pluripotential cells having the potential of expressing either macrophage or dendritic cell characteristics with a combination of GM-CSF and IL-4 or IL-13 for a time sufficient to produce immature dendritic cells, and b) adding a composition selected from the group consisting of peripheral blood mononuclear cell conditioned medium, monocyte conditioned medium and fixed Staphylococcus aureus Cowan 1 strain (SACS) to the immature dendritic cells produced in step (a) and culturing the cells for a time sufficient for the immature dendritic cells to produce stable mature dendritic cells that express a characteristic of mature dendritic cells, wherein the characteristic is selected from the group consisting of increased CD83 expression, increased CD86 expression, decreased CD115 expression, and decreased CD32 expression relative to the immature dendritic cells.