Patent ID: 7727523

Claim:
A method for preparing dendritic cells for use in suppressing graft versus host disease in an individual receiving a transplant preparation derived from an intended transplant donor, comprising the steps of: (a) treating an extracorporeal quantity of blood from an intended transplant recipient by causing the blood to flow through an apparatus having plastic channels to induce monocytes contained in the blood to differentiate into dendritic cells; (b) treating the dendritic cells to truncate the maturation of the dendritic cells at a stage where the dendritic cells are deficient in costimulatory molecules that interact with T cells such that the dendritic cells can induce suppression of an immune system response by treating the dendritic cells using a treatment selected from the group consisting of irradiation with gamma radiation, exposing the dendritic cells to mitomycin C, exposing the dendritic cells to cyclophosphamide, and exposing the dendritic cells to IL-10; (c) combining the dendritic cells from the intended transplant recipient with a transplant preparation derived from the intended transplant donor; and (d) co-incubating the dendritic cells from the intended transplant recipient with the transplant preparation from the intended transplant donor.