Targeted Sleeping Beauty transposition in human cells.

Transposons are natural gene delivery vehicles. The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon shows efficient transposition and long-term transgene expression in the cells of vertebrates including humans. SB transposition into chromosomal DNA occurs in a fairly random manner.

Towards determining the differentiation program of antigen-presenting dendritic cells by transcriptional profiling.

Dendritic cells (DC) represent professional antigen-presenting cells that develop from hematopoietic progenitors through successive steps of differentiation. Employing DNA microarray technology, we analysed the specific changes in gene expression that occur when human progenitor cells differentiate into DC. CD34 progenitor cells were first amplified in vitro with stem cell factor (SCF), Flt3 ligand (FL), thrombopoietin and IL-6/soluble IL-6 receptor fusion protein, and cells were then induced to differentiate into DC with IL-4 and GM-CSF.