Figure 1
In a 5-day culture human monocytes differentiate into dendritic cells (DCs) according to lineage markers and cellular morphology. After 5 days incubation DCs are CD11c + CD1a + and show lower expression of CD14 compared to monocytes. They also exhibit a typical DC morphology. (A) 5-day monocyte-derived DCs were differentiated under multiple stimulatory conditions: DC maturated with MPLA (mDCs), DCs conditioned with dexamethasone (tDCs), tDCs activated with MPLA (MPLA-tDCs) or immature DCs left untreated (iDCs). Cells were stained with CD14, CD11c and CD1a to assess their development towards fully differentiated DCs. Density plots of monocytes (day 0) and DCs (day 5) after each differentiation scheme are shown. Plots are representative of 5 independent experiments. (B) Cell morphology was evaluated by light microscopy on each DCs group on day 5. Representative microphotographs are shown. (C) Cell viability percentage on day 5 is expressed as the percentage of Annexin V and 7-AAD negative cells (mean ± SEM), while DC yield is expressed as a percentage of DCs obtained on day 5 related to the initial number of monocytes cultured per condition (mean ± SEM) (n = 7).