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Updated: Jun 1, 2026
Development and Functional Characterization of Murine Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells
Published on: May 18, 2018
Barley low molecular weight β-glucan potently induces maturation of mouse dendritic cells
Asuka Tanioka1, Wei-Wei An, Takao Kuge
1Advanced Materials Research and Development Laboratory, Life Sciences Department, ADEKA Corporation, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Background:
Accumulating evidence indicates that non-toxic immunostimulants with strong differentiation/maturation-inducing activity for dendritic cells (DCs) might be useful for preventing or even curing cancer.
Materials And Methods:
Mouse bone marrow (BM) cells were cultured in the presence of various glucans and their differentiation/maturation-inducing activities were compared by measuring cytokines secreted in the culture medium.
Results:
Barley-derived β-glucan with an average molecular weight of 2 kDa (BBG-Low) remarkably stimulated the formation of mature DCs from immature mouse DCs. The amount of interleukin-6 produced by sequential treatment of BM cells with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and 10 μg/mL of BBG-Low was approximately 30 times higher than that obtained by a similar sequential treatment using barley β-glucan of 40-70 kDa instead of BBG-Low.
Conclusion:
BBG-Low induces the formation of mature DCs from immature DCs and suggests that BBG-Low will be useful as a potent nontoxic immunostimulator.
