Phenotypical changes during in vitro cultivation of monocytes derived immature dendritic cells

Dendritic cells (DC) form a link between the first line of host defence and cellular immunity. In the present study we investigated the effect of cultivation time in generation of immature dendritic cells (iDCs) in vitro from human peripheral blood (PB) monocytes and the influence of iDCs on the oxygen free radicals (OFR) release by polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMN) stimulated with opsonized zymozan (OZ) and concanavalin A (ConA). Our data suggest that the differentiation in vitro of PB monocytes in iDCs is influenced by the health status of the cell donor, and more by the concentration of cytokines GM-CSF and IL-4 in the system than by the time of cultivation. The in vitro experiments performed demonstrated the interactions between iDC and PMN granulocytes, evaluated by enhanced release of OFR.