Generation of dendritic cells from peripheral blood of patients at different stages of chronic myeloid leukemia

We report a method to generate dendritic cells (DC) from frozen leukapheresis products of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), using sterile culture bags and serum-free culture medium, ie conditions feasible for re-infusion into the patient as part of immunother-apeutic protocols. Leukapheresis products were stored from harvests performed either at diagnosis (13 patients) or after chemotherapy with subsequent granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) administration (9 patients), for Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) collections. In the presence of optimal concentrations of GM-CSF (50 ng/ml) and IL-4 (40 ng/ml) CML progenitors differentiated on day 7 and 14 of culture to DC, expressing CD1a, HLA-DRand CD86 surface antigens. Mature DCs exhibited on average 12-fold higher allo-stimulatory capacity for CD4+ and CD8+ cells compared to non-cultured PBMC in mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). Only DCs obtained from CML patients at diagnosis exhibited bcr/abl fusion gene when tested by fluorescentin situ hybridization (FISH). CD34-selection on leukapheresis products from diagnosis (7 patients) resulted in later maturation of DCs (after 14–15 d), compared to the non-selected PBMC. CD34-selection significantly increased the DC growth, and improved the allo-stimulatory capacity in MLR (on average on day 14, 3.5- and 2.3-fold, respectively). Large differences were observed between individual patients and different leukapheresis products from the same patient. Our report demonstrates the possibility to generateex vivo autologous functionally active DC in CML in a way that allows their clinical application as immunotherapeutic agents.