Isolation and characterization of rhesus blood dendritic cells using flow cytometry

Recognition of dondritic cells (DQ) as initiators and modulators of immune responses and growing use of rhesus monkeys for the preclinical optimizatio n of vaccine formulations prompted characterization of the phenotype and fu nction of isolated rhesus peripheral blood DCs. We developed a flow cytomet ric method to directly identify and isolate DCs from rhesus peripheral bloo d whereby a T cell depleted population negative for CD3, CD14, CD16 and CD2 0 but positive for CD83 yielded a cell population with surface markers, mor phology, and a cytokine profile similar to human myeloid DCs. Rhesus blood DCs were more effective than monocytes and B cells in mixed lymphocyte reac tions and in the presentation of recombinant malaria blood stage antigen MS P-1((42)) to autologous T cells. The ability to isolate rhesus blood DC fro m peripheral blood should be a useful tool for immunological investigations , (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.