Generation of dendritic cells from fresh and frozen cord blood CD34+ cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells that are required for the initiation of the immune response. DCs have been shown to be generated from CD34(+) pluripotent hematopoietic progenitor cells in the bone marrow and cord blood (CB), but relatively little is known about the effect of cryopreservation on functional maturation of DCs from hematopoietic stem cells. In this work we report the generation of DCs from cryopreserved CB CD34(+) cells. CB CD34(+) cells were cryopreserved at -80 degreesC for 2 days. Cryopreserved CB CD34(+) cells as well as freshly isolated CB CD34(+) cells cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)/stem cell factor (SCF)/tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) for 14 days gave rise to CD1a+/CD4(+)/CD11c+/CD14(-)/CD40(+)/CD80(+ )/CD83(+)/CD86(+)/HLA-DR+ cells with dendritic morphology. DCs derived from cryopreserved CB CD34(+) cells showed a similar endocytic capacity for fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran and lucifer yellow when compared with DCs derived from freshly isolated CB CD34(+) cells. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that two CC chemokine receptors (CCRs), CCR-1 and CCR-3, were expressed on the cell surface of DCs derived from both cryopreserved and freshly isolated CB CD34(+) cells, and these DCs exhibited similar chemotactic migratory capacities in response to regulated on activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted. DCs derived from cryopreserved as well as freshly isolated CB CD34(+) cells were more efficient than peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the primary allogeneic T-cell response. These results indicate that frozen CB CD34(+) cells cultured with GM-CSF/TNF-alpha/SCF gave rise to dendritic cells which were morphologically, phenotypically and functionally similar to DCs derived from fresh CB CD34(+) cells.