Patent ID: 8445275

Claim:
A method of Fms-like-Tyrosine-Kinase 3-Ligand-(FL)- and Granulocyte-Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor-(GM-CSF)-independent generation of dendritic cells (DCs) comprising: (a) culturing hematopoietic precursor cells; (b) administering Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (M-CSF) to the precursor cells; and (c) quantitating the number of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) by measuring the level of at least two cell surface markers that characterize the quantitated cells as pDCs; wherein the administration of M-CSF causes an FL-independent and GM-CSF-independent generation of pDCs from the hematopoietic precursor cells.