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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Development and Functional Characterization of Murine Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells
Published on: May 18, 2018
Addition of interferon-alpha to a standard maturation cocktail induces CD38 up-regulation and increases dendritic
Redas Trepiakas1, Anders Elm Pedersen, Ozcan Met
1Center for Cancer Immune Therapy-CCIT, Department of Hematology, Herlev University Hospital, Denmark.
Monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) are used as adjuvant cells in cancer immunotherapy and have shown promising results. In order to obtain full functional capacity, these DCs need to be maturated, and the current "gold standard" for this process is maturation with TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6 and PGE(2) used for generating standard DCs (sDC). Several studies indicate that IFN-alpha might also be important for DC differentiation and maturation. In this study, we tested the effect of IFN-alpha alone or as addition to the gold standard sDC cocktail. We observed that maturation by IFN-alpha differs from sDC maturation: The major phenotypic change after IFN-alpha maturation was dose-dependent up-regulation of CD38 but not CD83, while sDCs expressed the opposite profile with low CD38 and high CD83 expression. Similarly, maturation by Poly I:C leads to CD38high, CD83low DCs indicating a functional relationship between CD38, IFN-alpha and TLR3. Thus, CD38 appear to be a relevant marker for activation by TLR3 or IFN-alpha. Addition of IFN-alpha to the sDC cocktail results in up-regulation of both CD38 and CD83 and improved capacity for induction of autologous T-cell responses despite few other changes in DC phenotype and cytokine secretion. Our observations suggest that IFN-alpha could be included in maturation protocols for clinical grade DCs used for immunotherapy against cancer and should be included if DCs are used for CD8+ T-cell stimulation in vitro.
Monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) are used as adjuvant cells in cancer immunotherapy and have shown promising results. In order to obtain full functional capacity, these DCs need to be maturated, and the current "gold standard" for this process is maturation with TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6 and PGE(2) used for generating standard DCs (sDC). Several studies indicate that IFN-alpha might also be important for DC differentiation and maturation. In this study, we tested the effect of IFN-alpha alone or as addition to the gold standard sDC cocktail. We observed that maturation by IFN-alpha differs from sDC maturation: The major phenotypic change after IFN-alpha maturation was dose-dependent up-regulation of CD38 but not CD83, while sDCs expressed the opposite profile with low CD38 and high CD83 expression. Similarly, maturation by Poly I:C leads to CD38high, CD83low DCs indicating a functional relationship between CD38, IFN-alpha and TLR3. Thus, CD38 appear to be a relevant marker for activation by TLR3 or IFN-alpha. Addition of IFN-alpha to the sDC cocktail results in up-regulation of both CD38 and CD83 and improved capacity for induction of autologous T-cell responses despite few other changes in DC phenotype and cytokine secretion. Our observations suggest that IFN-alpha could be included in maturation protocols for clinical grade DCs used for immunotherapy against cancer and should be included if DCs are used for CD8+ T-cell stimulation in vitro.
