Cryopreservation of Dendritic Cells Grown in Vitro from Monocytes for Their Future Clinical Use.

Dendritic cells are professional antigen presenting cells which are being used as adjuvants in tumor vaccination trials. Most clinical protocols currently include 4 to 10 weekly infusions of doses > 10(6) cells, each inoculum coming from a simple culture of blood monocytes. In the present study, several millions of dendritic cells from a single leukapheresis were produced; monocytes were isolated by elutriation and then cultured in Teflon bags in presence of 800 U/ml GM-CSF + 100 micro g/ml IL-13 + 10% fetal calf serum (FCS).