Characterization of monocyte-derived dendritic cells maturated with IFN-alpha

Dendritic cells (DC) are promising candidates for cancer immunotherapy. These cells can be generated from peripheral blood monocytes cultured with granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4). In order to obtain full functional capacity, maturation is required, but the most potent reagents such as LPS or polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid (Poly I:C) are not approved for clinical use. We tested the ability of type I interferon (IFN) to induce such maturation. We found that 24-h IFN-alpha co-culture of day 7 monocyte-derived DC generated with GM-CSF and IL-4 induces increased numbers of DC positive for CD54 and CD40 together with the co-stimulatory molecule CD80 but not the activation marker CD83. Also, IFN-alpha maturation leads to an increase in IP-10 and MCP-1 chemokine secretion, but only a minor increase in IL-12p40 secretion. In line with this, maturation with IFN-alpha has only a small effect on induction of autologous T-cell stimulatory capacity of the DC. However, an increase in DC allogeneic T-cell stimulatory capacity was observed. These data suggest that IFN-alpha has a potential as a maturation agent used in DC-based cancer vaccine trials, but not as a single reagent.